Welcome, Guest. Please login or register. May 16, 2024, 12:59:42 PM
Now about the topic (sorry LOL), I do think that the group changed it's style enough to justify us spliting its history into 'eras'.For an example, the group only has male backup singers/dancers nowadays instead of a choir; we used to have 8 choir members (4M/4F) till Isle of Hope where it was made 6 members (3/M/3F) - a very sutil change but still -, then at the european Believe tour it was reduced again very noticeably to 4 members (2M/2F) which remainded until X Tour. From Destiny onwards, we barely have male singers on tour, sometimes only 2 of them. Where am I going with this? Well, it influentiates a lot the arrangements of the songs, where we have a choir on the studio/PBS special version of a song then on tour it's removed (like in Faith's Song), reduced to a few voices or played on a background track being emulated by 3 people doing 20 voices.Another thing is that the Celtic Woman act is very less 'theatrical' than before. If you watch the old tour videos on Youtube eg, you can see much less interactions with the audience, song preludes and Medleys (The Sky & The Dawn & The Sun, Newgrange, Orinoco Flow, SFTH: Walking The Night/The World Falls Away etc), a playoff section (Finalle Mo Ghile Mear) and the design of the set was very extravagant and bold, full of lights and fog or wathever. This isn't a Gavin era thing specifically, but it was accentuated here; the show is more and more in touch with the audience, the set design is way more simplistic and sometimes darker - like it focus a lot more on the girls. The choir thing reflects this point as well.In general I think there are somethings that saddens me nowadays and others that are way better. Seeing the girls telling stories or just chatting with us is awesome; it isn't like you sat for 90mins straight to see an act where the members doesn't even acknowlege the existence of an audience apart of a 'thank you' - there was even a meme of Mairead Nesbitt being mute until the Christmas special. I cannot forget the band numbers like Tip tap Toe or, even better, The Kesh Inn, where all of the members interact directly with the girls. But I do miss those big drums/percussion kits, the big choir, those luxurious and creative sets etc.As of the girls, they are always gorgeous in every sense of the word. Particularly, the latests ensembles attract me more, the Ancient Land one is my favorite.In conclusion, yes I do think it's a whole different thing now, altough it shares the same formula. It's not all a negative thing, but enough to piss some old school fans and create a whole new fanbase (while I acknowlege the die heart fans that doesn't give up easily like us wink wink).
So whom selected Mairead Carlin was it David Downes? Was David still in charge of after HFC with the tours leading on to the X Anniversary? If he didn't then I wonder who led to Emerald Tour having some of the songs changed to whether solo or duet....Had David stayed on I could imagine that phenomenal choregoraphical duet version of Si Mo Maheimo I would have made it into a special I would imagine!
I'm not exactly sure, but I believe they used MGM until the beginning of 2014 on the Australian tour, this tour was the same production as the 2012 Believe Tour only with the setlist drastically changed in 2013 and 2014 in Australia In February 2014, the Emerald tour began, and MGM ceased to be used as a playout, giving way to The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun, which stayed until the end of the anniversary tour in 2015.