"Music for me was like
many rainbows, filled
with many, many colours."

- Nana Mouskouri -

Fans - Mike's Page

Review - Bournemouth Concert 2001

The day Tuesday 8th May 2001, The place Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre, The time
8-00 pm, The auditorium full to capacity with an expectant and eager audience, on to the stage walk the members of the band and Helena, The daughter of the star turn, the band begin to strike up the opening tune, During this tune from the darkness of the theatre wings the figure of Nana Mouskouri appears, she walks slowly towards the centre of the stage where the microphone is situated, she is dressed in a black outfit with what appear to be thousands of sequins sparkling like the stars in the night sky in the spotlights, there is rapturous applause from the enthralled audience, into the opening song and concert number 17 of the UK tour has begun. After the opening sequence of songs Nana settles into a routine that over the last forty years has been perfected to a highly polished performance. Nana strolls through the first half of the concert with great ease and after a twenty minute break returns to the stage, this time she has changed into an all white outfit.

After one or two more songs she settles onto a stool and starts to talk to the audience. She runs through the story of her early life in Athens, about her father being a projectionist in a cinema, and how she had trained to be a classical singer and how she wanted to sing all types of songs including Jazz, and Rock and roll, Nana then goes on to say that this year is a very special year, It is forty years ago when she first started performing, and to celebrate this milestone in her career she ran through some of her early songs, Over & Over, Try To Remember, Scarborough Fair, Only Love, and of course The White Rose Of Athens.

Then it was time to introduce the members of her band, Luciano Di Napoli, Yussuf Allie, Yannick Deborne, Carl Faimali, Philippe Pregno, and David Merle, and finally someone of whom she is very proud, Helene Petsilas, her daughter who then sang for us and proved that it was not just mum that could sing. Then came to that time that we were all dreading, the end of the concert, Nana came back on stage to do a few last songs before she was gone and the concert was over.

There was a small gathering at the stage door to see Nana and Helena off. The night air was very cold and Nana wore a scarf around her face to protect those wonderful vocal chords from the cold, a few final waves and she is gone, I hope that some day soon she will be back, I pass the theatre every day and the visions of that evening are very clear in my mind. Nana it has already been to long, please don’t forget your adoring fans here in the United kingdom.