Ecce cor meum, November 10thth 2001
I don't know why but there was VERY little promotion for the world premiere of 'Ecce Cor Meum'. Almost no posters in the city and very few leaflets...
Going to Oxford
This paragraph contains no Paul McCartney content, so you might wanna skip this one and go directly to the next paragraph. For all the rest, here is the story of my trip to Oxford. I had the choice how I would go to Oxford: by plane, by train, by car or by motorcycle. I decided for my favourite vehicle: my motorcycle. Since my last trip to Wales I sold my old BMW motorcycle and bought a new (well, second hand really because these BMW's are pretty expensive) BMW. After some test rides I chose a K1200RS. This 4-in-line cylinder bike has more than 130 BHP and is capable of riding more than 250 km/h. Acceleration is phenomenal (0 to 100km/h in 3 secs), it has loads of torque and the handling is a vast improvement over my old boxer BMW. I don't need to tell you how much I love this baby. Since this summer I've taken her to Luxemburg, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy and of course Belgium. This time I wanted to show her England. How she loved it!
As usual I drove to France, Calais (a 2 hour trip) in freezing temperatures (heated handlebars are a great improvement on this bike!). The seacat is a 40 minute experience to cross the Channel. From Dover it's about 2,5 hours via London to Oxford. Oxford itself is a beautiful place, much like Leuven (where I live) in fact. When I arrived on Saturday at noon I found my beatlepals Raf Vandenberghe and Bernard who were waiting for me in the hotel. I quickly checked in and then we went to the Sheldonian Theatre to find out what was going on that afternoon.
I've got the impression that since the wedding announcement Heather Mills' attitude has changed: in the beginning she was pretty shy, but now she looks much more self confident and aware of her 'status'. All in all i found her very friendly and with a positive attitude.
The afternoon
We were told that the rehearsal would start at about 2pm. And indeed, from 2pm on several musicians, instruments and singers arrived. Since Mark Hamilton was waiting at the gate, just like us fans (like my friend Naoto Ito), we knew Paul would show up sooner or later. It must have been half past three when Paul and Heather arrived in a Merc S-class of the latest model. I was standing at a wrong gate so by the time I arrived at the right gate I could only see a glimpse of Paul and Heather going in.
After some time someone spotted Heather Mills going out on her own. Just when my friend Bernard and I were having a walk towards the centre and we went into a paper shop, it turned out that by pure coincidence Heather was standing in that same paper shop. She was writing a postcard. We asked her for an autograph and she was very polite to us.
Paul left the Sheldonian Theatre together with Heather Mills at approx. 5:30pm. He looked very relaxed and he gave an impromptu press conference on the sidewalk surround by press and fans. There was plenty of opportunity to take pictures and to ask an autograph (he signed the CD-single 'From a lover to a friend' for me). I guess Paul and Heather left for dinner then. My friends and I had a drink, then we went to the hotel to change and finally a quick dinner.
Paul and Heather arrived again at 7:45pm just before the concert was about to begin.
The concert
The Sheldonian Theatre has a capacity of 1000 people and it was sold out despite the poor promotion for the event. We all bought a program for £2. There hadn't been any security checks but there was an announcement to say that taking photos throughout the concert was prohibited. I didn't see anyone break that rule.
Our seats were in the row just behind Paul and Heather, 4 seats to the right. I was a bit surprised that none of Paul's kids came to the concert. The concert was in two parts, one part with some more religious oriented music, sung a cappella by a choir of 13 boys and 13 men. Some of these boys looked really young, about 7 years I guess...
After the interval (in which Chelsea Clinton came to the Paul and Heather row) there was the 45 minute oratorio called 'Ecce Cor Meum' in 4 parts:
1) Spiritus Spiritus
2) State of Grace
3) Ecce Cor Meum
4) Musica
This time the choir was somewhat larger (16 boys and 16 men) and there was a small scale symphonic orchestra sustaining the choir. I appreciated the whole thing very much. And so did Heather Mills! She was reading the sheet music of 'Ecce Cor Meum' and singing along (well, she moved her lips without producing any sound). Once in a while she gave a wink to Paul. All in all it was the first time for me to see her with such a high profile attitude (In Wales and Berlin she stayed well in the shadow of Paul, here it was rather ugh... different ;-) All this being said, I think she has a positive influence on Paul.
After the concert Paul was called forward by the director and there was plenty of opportunity to take pictures. Paul and Heather left the building after about 20 minutes. My friends and I returned back to the hotel after some more beers. I left Oxford on Sunday at 10am and arrived at home in Leuven at 4 pm.
I took a lot of pictures after the concert, but unfortunately there wasn't enough light in the Sheldonian Theatre. As a consequence, none of my pictures with zoom worked out...
Paul's future wife (marriage planned in 2002): Heather Mills
Showing off signed items with friends in a local pub...
Ecce cor meum was well worth all the effort and I hope to see you all on
one of the coming events,
tijl.vanbrabant@chello.be
P.S. Please e-mail me whenever you like!
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