Hi,

On June 4th Irish singer Daniel O'Donnell performed in Hobart
(possibly his last time as he is limiting touring next time and
cutting out some venues) at the Wrest Point Casino.

He performed with Mary Duff, his 7 member band, and suprise guest
Marc Roberts (who he has co-written a number of songs with).

The show was great and lasted around 3hrs as usual. First up I went
to the merchandise stand and although I hadn't planned to buy much I
went way over budget. I bought the program as planned but got carried
away and bought some of the double classic albums. (As a more recent
Daniel fan I didn't have these when they were released.) I saw
Marc's album and resisted it at first not having heard him before and
not expecting him to be there at this show.

When we entered the room for the show I was pleased to see we were
pretty close to the stage, in the middle section, good spot for
photos.

The show began and Daniel sang many favourites. He introduced Mary
and they sang duets including, 'Whispering Hope', 'When the bluebird
sings', and 'Somewhere between us'.

Mary's songs included 'Crazy', 'Time will tell' (off her Heartbreaker
album) and 'My Irish Molly'. Ronnie sang 'Tell Maa' and was up to
his usual antics trying to distract with a funny hat. During
Daniel's performance of 'I just want to dance with you', he danced up
and down close to Ronnie, I thought he would step on him!

Some of the songs Daniel sang, from memory are;

'Footsteps', 'Sweet Queen of Peace', 'Walk across Texas' (putting
Hobart into one verse), 'My shoes keep walking', a Jim Reeves
song, 'Rivers of Babylon' and 'How great though art'.

He invited Marc on stage and they sang some songs together including
a new one 'Don't break my heart and tell me you are leaving...',
where Daniel took along the words just in case he forgot them, as it
was a newly written song. Marc sang the song written for Majella to
sing at THE Wedding (he said that means Daniel and Majella's wedding
not Princess Mary and Frederik). Daniel kept interrupting Marc (and
coming back on stage) when he told the story of being left alone with
Majella and she asked him to write him a song for the wedding. Daniel
joked that doesn't say much for you as she still married me! Majella
put her thoughts in a letter that Marc turned into the song.

At intermission I went out to buy Marc's CD and was pleased to see
Marc was signing too. So I got to meet him, get his autograph and a
photo.

When I returned to the concert room I found out that Ronnie had been
meeting people near the stage so unfortunately I missed out on
meeting Ronnie.

Daniel didn't tell many jokes this time, but did tell the 'posh lady'
one which was funny :)

While he was dancing at one stage he said 'if only I had a
partner', 'it's too late now you should have got up sooner'.

During Marc's time on stage he mentioned that he performed John
Denver songs too, it would be great to see his own show with those
songs and his own compositions.

Unfortunately Daniel didn't walk through the audience this time.
Some fans commented maybe this was 'due to him suffering from the
cold/flu. He mentioned during the show he had 'Vick' on earlier in
the day, and that the long flights have been affecting him. Still he
soldiered on and performed his usual energetic show.

During one of the duet segments with Mary he told how since he'd
married it had been mentioned to him that he looks at her too
much ;) He explained this was because Mary has never revealed her
age and he was actually trying to count her teeth to try and work it
out for himself. He said he hadn't got far and would wait until she
took them out and count them all!!! He then said he better sing her
favourite after that to make it up to her.

After intermission he read letters out as usual and I was pleased to
see mine had reach him and he commented on it. I'd requested a few
of my favourite tunes and he said 'I hope you hear some of your
favourites'.

He also promoted 'Isla Grant' saying he recommended her, and her
husband sings like Jim Reeves. It turns out she has a show coming up
at the Wrest Point Casino soon.

As usual he asked the audience, and staff to put there hands in the
air and many swayed along to some of the songs, and when it was over
he ended on 'Rivers of Babylon' before returning for an encore
with 'How Great Though Art'.

It was announced Daniel would be signing and everone was asked to
leave the room and the staff outside would tell us were to line up.
When we came out we couldn't see the staff around just lots of the
crowd, but found a line beginning to form. It was not very long so
for we got a good position in line and didn't have a long wait to
meet him.

Once we got in the room where he was signing we noticed Mary was not
with him so we asked a staff member, who were now lined up around the
signing area, and they said Mary would be out soon to sign in another
area.

I got a photo taken with Daniel and moved on to line up for Mary.
Luckily her line wasn't busy yet (lots of people were still in the
line for Daniel, which had grown considerably) but she hadn't arrived
yet. Not long after she arrived and had changed into a Black trouser
suit. She looked lovely in person and was really nice. She signed
CDs and program for us and we got photos with her too.

See the photos area for some snaps of the show.

Frances

4th June 2004
Hobart, Tasmania