Venue: Chapel Off Chapel
Date: 24th July, 2015

I’m going off memory so some details may be slightly off – but I try my best to remember correctly, otherwise, I don’t put it in here.

It feels so strange writing about this when it feels like it was oh so long ago. I was lucky enough to be invited to Josh Groban’s super secret An Evening with ... in Melbourne at Chapel off Chapel. Why was it super secret, you ask? Well, it was only open to media officials and contest winners. You could not buy tickets to the event, and that made it all the more special.

I’m not going to go into huge detail with this write up but I wanted to share some funny tidbits with you all – as, if you’re a Josh fan, you would know how wickedly funny he is – and this night was no exception.

• Approx 170 attended the gig.
• Over 1000 people entered the online competition at 3AW to win tickets.
• 3AW also received numerous phone calls asking how they could get tickets – one man even offered the station a lot of money and was going to fly down from Tokyo to attend.
• It was raining heavily outside and Josh said he wished he could see-through the gorgeous stained-glass windows as he loved to watch the rain.
• Mid-way through the concert, Dee Dee from 3AW did an interview with Josh.
• She mentioned how he’s always alone on the road and asks what he does to pass the time and what he does when he’s alone. Josh’s face was one of hilarity. Think erm, hand-job type job here. Dee Dee than stated that we were all adults. Josh said that when you’re on the road you really only work two hours a week. The rest of the time is spent on the road and his fabulous crew do become like a family – but occasionally they do get out to have a bowl (bowling) every once in a while.
• He also said he likes to play video games after a gig and on the bus. I want to say Guitar Hero but I’m not 100% sure of that …
• She asked about his jet-lag and the photo of him on his Instagram of him “asleep” on a fruit bowl.
• Josh said he loves that he can swear on television in Australia. I remember “Up the (make weird uping noise here)”
• “You Raise Me Up … no longer just an ad for Viagra” – Josh
• Josh had to do a little Australian slang quiz. He thought ‘sanga’ was a ‘singer’, ‘dunny’ was a bathroom and ‘take the piss’ was to make fun of.
• His Australian accent impressions are amazing though! So good!
• He said he always thought What I Did For Love was about following Cassie’s journey. I’m sure there was more but I cannot remember …
• Josh said that he decided to keep Le Temps Des Cathedrales in its original language because one, he’s heard the English version and he doesn’t like it as much; two, he thinks songs are written with a certain melody or rhythm of the words; and three, he was told that people would never buy/play his music if he wasn’t in English but he thinks people understand the emotional connection to the song without having to understand the words.
• He asked how many of us in the audience were contest winners. Then he asked how many people got dragged in as a plus one with a contest winner. He then joked that there is always a plus one being dragged into his show. He later joked about that when he mentioned his upcoming tour.
• Josh said he’s touring here again in April. He says he always enjoys Melbourne but he wants it to be a stripped back show so he can afford to bring in a big orchestra. He joked that the lightening budget may be low because of it.
• He said something about Stephen Sondheim but I can’t remember what – but he said not to tell Stephen that as he wouldn’t like it. I believe it was something he said but it sounded kind of dirty without meaning to …
• Josh said that his parents took him to the theatre when he was young. He was in theatre school when he was discovered by David Foster – who, of course, got him to sing with Celine Dion.
• Josh said he was obsessed with Phantom of the Opera as a kid. He would sing the songs and made a mask at school.  He said that he loved that you’re rooting for the Phantom but he’s essentially the bad guy of the story. But he didn’t know why he told us the story as he was actually singing a song sung by Raoul. Claire said that Josh could be Raoul tonight. Claire, having just recently been nominated for a Helpmann Award and is currently playing Christine in the Australian show.
• He said that he didn’t want to release the musical album straight out of musical theatre school. He said that he knew he would be able to sing the songs but he thought he needed to experience life and heartbreak etc to really deliver the emotion of the song, not just sing the lyrics.
• Josh said he loved Melbourne and Sydney because of the musical theatre culture here. He said a lot of musicals come here and really flourish, start out and “some musicals start and die here” he joked.
• He mentioned how Not While I’m Around is probably the only song in Sweeney Todd that isn’t about killing people and he loves that about it.
• He praised the musicians, as he said its hard to be part of an orchestra but even harder to do a show with so few people. Bravo, ladies!

Set List:

1. Pure Imagination – (from Charlie And The Chocolate Factory)
2. What I Did For Love – (from A Chorus Line)
3. Le Temps Des Cathedrales – (from Notre-Dame de Paris)
4. All I Ask Of You (with Claire Lyon) – (from The Phantom of the Opera)
5. Over The Rainbow – (from The Wizard of Oz)
6. Children Will Listen/Not While I’m Around – (from Into The Woods/Sweeney Todd)

Josh said that this was probably the smallest gig he’s ever played in his career. There were such amazing acoustics in the room. We weren’t allowed to take photos – which everyone seemed to respect (amazingly!) but that makes it all the more special for all the people who attended that night. I can’t stress enough how amazing it was. Even Le Temps Des Cathedrales bought a tear to my eye. It’s my favourite song off Stages too. I felt like there was a real connection

I’m sure that I’m forgetting a whole bunch of things that were said but I wanted to thank every single person at Warner who made it possible for me to attend. It was by far, the best concert I’ve ever been to. It was so intimate, so special and just sweetly, the best.