Christ where do I begin? I guess firstly ill have to appologise once again for neglecting the blog but as deadlines catch up college takes over as usual!
So Last night after a pretty full morning of working 8 to 1, flew home, collected himself and hit the road to Dublin to see the wonderful Bill Bailey’s Remarkable Guide To The Orchestra in the O2 Alongside the Lombard Philharmonia Orchestra and Academy Award-winning conductor Anne Dudley.
I had never been to the O2 since its refurbishment and I am impressed, very nice logical layout (we wont mention the few times I got lost!) and lots of blue, I like blue! First thing I noticed was the funny sculpture of the 3 bears on the way in, I thought it was for the Bailey gig but apparantly its a permanent fixture.
We got inside, found our seat and waited eagerly for the show to begin. The stage was set to hold the full Orchestra and before it even started we heard people down below us start to scream and cheer, Bailey had made a quick appearance from the side stage door and with the attention he got, he came out a second time again for another wave!
Promptly at 8pm the Orchestra came on stage at this moment I couldnt help get excited, I have wanted to see the Lombard Philharmonia Orchestra for a very long time and have never gotten the chance till now. It was however the Lombard Philharmonia who were quiet frankley remarkable!
They opened with Strauss’ epic theme tune to 2001 A Space Oddesy and we couldnt help but laugh given the context of the Host for the evening!
Bailey came on stage and the crowed went nuts, he started with a little jestful snipe at the venue by asking us to turn off our phones but if we were on the O2 network not to bother because we wouldnt have signal anyway! He played heavilly on the, *Lette Whispers: The French Football F*ckup, which I have to say was hillarious as he said if England ever meet France in a match all the Irish will be like, ” COME ON ENGLAND!” which he said will never happen again! :p
This show is a different set up to the usual Bailey gigs, yes its funny and boy did I laugh but its more about him introducing different sections of the orchestra, giving a factual tidbit and then demonstrating the instruments capability which I absolutely adored as im into music but without the Conducter and the Orchestra he just wouldnt have been as funny. I also found some people in the audience seemed just a little bit lost in parts, not because of his explanation of things because it was all very easy to understand but if your not used to Baileys twist on things he can come across as very random (which I get but others didnt seem to) and also this set up is completely different to his other comedy shows.
Here is what Danielle Jacoby has to say about the highlights of the show (note I changed from BBC to Lombard Philharmonia Orchestra in the text)
“The good news is, this program still retains the essence of Bill Bailey: cocknified classics and pop-inspired parodies backed by piano, guitar, flute, and even that wonderful electronic theremin take form in a spoof on Chris de Burgh, a couple of old songs about racial harmony called “Hats Off To The Zebra,” and a rock opera aria about the invasion of creepy-crawlies, “Insect Nation.” All are rather amusing, especially with the Lombard Philharmonia Orchestra’s satirically larger-than-life accompaniment.
There is no denying Bailey is a talented musician. Whether he is whizzing through concertos on the piano or producing a perfect F-sharp on the theremin (which is extremely hard to do), we can at least appreciate his utter skill. And really, there are plenty of good moments in the “Remarkable Guide”—his interpretation of the “Doctor Who” theme as a Belgian jazz jingle and a slapstick skit involving men in suits and tuned Alpine bells. And we have to applaud Bailey’s musical passion.”
The Doctor Who part was brilliant also the Swedish Horn part where he explained it was originally used to communicate the time across vast distances and he demonstrated, when he finished someone was quick to shout out, ‘5:20!’ to which Bailey was completely thrown off by and just laughed it was very funny and all down to perfect timing! 
Over all the show was brilliant but certainly not his best work to date. Reasons being, Mostely old material was used, I had heard nearly all the songs in his shows before bar the ones written especially for this show with the orchestra. He was quiet unorganised and kept tripping up and skipping over things to which the conducter had to remind him, which was funny but happened at least 3 times in the show.
In saying all this, it was certainly worth the trek up and down, we laughed heartily the whole way through, it was very funny and the banter and atmosphere with the auience was excellent. Full credit to the show should go to Anne Dudley and the Lombard Philharmonia Concert Orchestra as they really did steal the show overall.
After the show we went to the Merchandise stand and picked up an autographed DVD of the TV version of the show and a couple of t-shirts, there was a limited edition screenprint too that if you bought you would get a voucher to meet Bill Bailey backstage after the show Keith and I nearly cried at the fact that we didnt come with more money in our pocket, but h0pefully there will be a next time 
Not his best work to date no, but brilliantly entertaining and I still highly recommend it and without a doubt ill be back to see him again =)
PS: I got lots of recordings but because we were up in the balcony areas and all I had was the iPhone all I really have is Audio as you cant see whats really going on, but as soon as these are sorted ill add to my Facebook and Here
