Hayley Westenra Christmas Wishes Live @ Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (17th December 2010)

On a bitterly cold December evening, a large crowd filled the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for a performance from New Zealand born Hayley Westenra. Before Hayley though, there was the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCoS) Renfrewshire who performed two songs before making way for the main act of the evening.

At first the band and the Raven String Quartet appeared on stage before the drummer began playing on the snare. This was to lead into the opening number of The Little Drummer Boy. This was followed by the beautiful yet haunting song Veni, Veni Emmanuel. After this, she welcomes the audience to show and jokes about how they were worried about getting into Glasgow because of the snow, but the biggest problem was getting out of London. After asking the audience about Christmas shopping, she confesses that most of hers is done through duty free.

Introductions out the way, the music continued with the well known song, The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire). She introduces the next song explaining that it originally started out as a poem, but throughout the years has been put to different music and that this arrangement is based on a traditional Irish tune. The song is Love Came Down At Christmas. After this, she introduces her special guest, Thomas Oliver (usually seen in the Welsh male choir Only Men Aloud). He performed two songs; a almost swing version of Winter Wonderland and the Austrian song Still, Still, Still.

Hayley returns to perform a song that she's kept a hold of since performing with the Boston Pops a few years ago, the song being The Little Road To Bethlehem. Before she has a chance, the NYCoS Renfrewshire choir return to the stage to accompany Hayley on the last two songs of this half: The Coventry Carol and When A Child Is Born.

After an interval, it's straight back into the music with Carol Of The Bells and the Corpus Christi Carol. Silent Nightis next, but only after Hayley explains the history behind the song. After this, she introduces the musicians that join her on stage before adding a few mentions to people, particularly her guiarist Andy's mum, who's birthday it was (cue, Andy to give a sort burst of Happy Birthday on the guitar).

Getting the show back on track (because she's knows people are watching the time very carefully!), she introduces a track from the album, Winter Magic that she wrote called Peace Shall Come. At the end of this, she leaves the talented Raven String Quartet to play a little medley of songs including We Wish You A Merry Christmas and The Sailor's Hornpipe. During The Sailor's Hornpipe, the audience began to clap along, almost taking the quartet by surprise. Whilst the song itself does get faster and faster as it goes on, it almost felt as if the girls were deliberately getting faster, trying to lose the audience in the clapping. Fortunately, the audience kept up and in time right to the end.

The wonderful Thomas Oliver appears back on stage followed by Hayley for a duet on the the song I'll Be Home For Christmas. Next we're treated to a traditional Maori carol called Te Harinui as well as the traditional Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. After a brief thanks, she explains the song and also that this will be her first Christmas away from home. At first she'd warmed to the idea but realised what she'd be missing, explaining that it is Summer in New Zealand after all. On a positive, she might get to experience a White Christmas. It is now she realises that she doesn't have her sleigh bells and explains they're essential to the next song. It leads on to her asking if anyone has any spare. Cue someone from the NYCoS choir to rattle a set and her asking them how they knew they'd be needing them. Fortunately, Michael the drummer/percussionist produces some and so it's onto Sleigh Ride.

All With You is next and is another track that Hayley wrote for her last album. Finally, she sings, what she believes is either the most popular or most well known, she can't remember, Christmas song. That is O Holy Night. With it being the last song, she leaves the stage. But no house lights come up. Is she coming back on?

Of course she is and once again, is joined with Thomas Oliver on stage. She invites the audience to join her in a spot of carolling with the song The First Nowell (which, for those who had purchased the programme, had probably realised something like this would happen). As the band start up, the audience is still seated, causing Hayley to stop and get the audience standing. After all, she's standing and it's good singing posture. So everyone is the standing singing three verses of the carol, meaning everyone present could claim that they'd sang with Hayley Westenra (a tweet from Hayley later on would reveal she thought Glasgow rocked the carolling). This brought the evening to a close.

Overall, despite being cold outside, it was a fantastic atmosphere in the main auditorium. Hayley was engaging with the audience, if appearing shy and a little embarrassed when people clapped at the end of her songs. She is one of the few artists around who sounds the exact same live as she does in studio recordings so you don't sort of feel cheated. You get what you pay for and it was certainly worth every penny of the ticket price.

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Steve McKenna // You Raise Me Up

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If you're in Scotland and you happen to listen to Real Radio, then you'll already know what I'm about to say, so stop reading here. For those that don't, continue reading.

Steve McKenna is a presenter on Real Radio who has been forever slating Westlife and pretty much refusing to play it. So on a recent visit to Glasgow, the Westlife boys decided to do something about it. The options: get beaten up by the boys or perform one of their songs. You guessed it, he opted for performing one of their songs. The song he choose was You Raise Me Up, the video for which was released during Help For Heroes event after enough money was raised. Fortunately now, more money is going to be raised for such a worthwhile cause with it's download release.

There is only one word to describe this: fantastic! Steve obviously has hidden talents that no one was aware of. Add to that, that the release is in aid for Help For Heroes and you've got a winning combination.

Rating: 5/5

Sandi Thom // House Of The Rising Sun

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House Of The Rising Sun is the brand new single from Sandi Thom. It is, as you've probably guessed from the title, a cover of the classic folk track (the most famous version probably by The Animals), but what a cover it is!

It's not your straight cover. Sandi performs it in her own style, with her powerful vocals being complimented by the instrumentation. Although performed I her own style, it still maintains that familiar feel to it.

This is a must for fans as it's not a track from her recent album, Merchants & Thieves. It's a recommended listen for anyone, a fan or not.

Rating:5/5

Amy Macdonald // A Curious Thing (Special Orchestral Edition)

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It's been a busy year for Amy Macdonald this year. Since the original release of A Curious Thing back in March this year, Amy has travelled all over the UK and Europe promoting it and it's singles, and recently just completed her longest tour to date. In between the touring though, Amy found time to travel to Luxembourg to record a some special renditions of some of her much loved songs with the German Philharmonic Orchestra.

This version of the release disregards the 2007 recording of the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow and replaces it with 12 tracks from her set with the German Philharmonic Orchestra. Like her recent tour set list, there are songs from both This Is The Life and A Curious Thing. There are of course some tracks that did already have some string arrangements in them, but played by the orchestra, it make the songs just sounds so very different and take on a completely different life. There's a little something special in hearing the songs like this.

This is the first time that it's been done with this orchestra and it sounds as if it is likely to become a frequent occurrence, so for Amy to be given the first chance is an honour. Everything tells you that this arrangement probably shouldn't work, but it does and it does beautifully.

There is a draw back on this though. Many fans will already have purchased the album back in March and may see no reason to purchase it again just for orchestrated versions of the songs. What might have worked would have been for the concert, if possible, to have been released in it's entirety and packaged it with the a DVD of it too and made it a release like Sting's Symphonicity. Still, it's a nice little offering for fans and well worth a listen.

Rating:4/5

Olly Murs // Thinking Of Me

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Thinking Of Me is single number 2 for last year's X-Factor runner up, Olly Murs. Sadly though, even with the release, it still feels as if he is trying to find out who he is in a musical sense.

It's more of a summery tune for summertime loves to listen to and remember what they found those two weeks abroad (or at home). The song itself sounds like something that Paolo Nutini would be singing and sadly, it feels like Murs is trying to copy that same singing style, which doesn't suit his voice. . Maybe it's Murs found his own place in the music industry instead of trying to hit on what's already been filled

Rating:2/5