Superstar: The Carpenters Story
Plant 4 Bowden, Sunday 30thJune 2019
(Review by John Glennie)
It was not what I expected – Chong Lim and Charmaine Jones performing The Carpenters’ greatest hits. Very pleasantly surprised to see an enormous local choir on stage with the amazing Chong Lim on grand piano as well as a backing band. I have no idea how many were in the choirs (5 of them in total I think!) but they were excellent and obviously thoroughly enjoying themselves – as you can see in the photo above.
Chong Lim is best known for his work as a musical director and producer for John Farnham, Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John and the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Charmaine Jones is one of Australia’s most renowned educators in vocal and choral music and trains across Australia. She also runs a singing school here in Adelaide in conjunction with her business partner, Ben Gillard. Weekly training occurs with the Jones Commentary (adults 17+), Jones Chorus (teens 12-16) and Jones Juniors (kids 5-11) and the professional arm, the Gospo Collective. She has also been training The Big Black Caftans, which includes the fabulous Maggie Beer, in the Barossa Valley every Wednesday for 10-years.
Charmaine herself has an incredible, powerful voice which was an absolute delight to hear. The majority of the songs were performed by the choirs and various soloists from each of the choirs. There were good (not great) soloists as well as some outstanding ones. A few of the teens and juniors have enormous potential – which, I am sure, Jones will bring out of them! The Juniors were so cute and looked like they were having the time of their lives on stage. It was very heart-warming to see.
Of course, the sets covered The Carpenters’ biggest hits and some slightly lesser-known songs that were all given their own spin by the choirs and done to perfection! My only issue was visibility – on several occasions I couldn’t see who was singing as they were hidden behind one of the steel posts supporting the roof! After the interval we went upstairs and had a perfect view from there, and regretted not going there for the first set.
Charmaine has such wonderful presence on stage and genuine friendliness that even I would be keen to attend her weekly singing groups!
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