Feliciano Fiesta News Page
NEWS 2008
Updated 24th December 2008
If you enjoy this site José's Personal Site , his page on My Space .
The Fantastic Feliciano Site and Bob Conti.com are all great places to visit for news of José. We share the noticeboard with the Fantastic Feliciano site and it can be accessed here
Your Pictures - pictures taken by vistors to this site
Click here to read the news stories we found in
2002
2003
2004 (first half)
2004 (second half)
2005
2006
2007
If you play guitar there are a large number of tabs to be found here
27th January 2008: I am recovering slowly although I face more weeks of enforced bed rest. Normal service is now restored here thanks to my new lap top!
Good news for our Australian visitors! Click here for news of three gigs in Australia in April.
3rd February 2008: Tina found this video as it is in Spanish I understood very little :) I found this video in which José's description of bathtime Puerto Rican style made me laugh!.
José travels to India this week for a number of gigs. Long ago, when we frequented the Yak room, I remember talking to a woman called Maya who lived in India; Maya, if you read this, do you fancy being my Indian correspondent and reporting on those gigs?
10th February 2008: Its a small world! I did not hear from Maya then this article by her nephew popped up on a google news alert! Hope they enjoy tonight's gig and he gets to meet José.
As I have been out of action I am only just getting to know "Senor Bachata" but I am surprised that everyone else has been so quiet about it! My thoughts are that it is not typical Feliciano but we're used to surprises. Is anyone going to write a review for us?
12th February 2008: There are few advantages to my current situation........lying flat in bed for twewnty two hours a day gets boring however positive you try to be, but at least it means I can bring you the news as it happens. I liked this review of José's Mumbai concert from a reviewer who came fresh to José's work and loved him.
13th February 2008: I don't intend to do daily updates but this was too good to keep :). Thanks to Phil for finding it. It seems the tour is going well and José looks in great form.
17th February 2008: As José and the band head home after tonight's gig in Delhi we must congratulate them on a PHENOMENAL tour of India. Modern technology is a wonderful thing and it was great to share the Mumbai concert courtesy of Youtube. Given the camera angle everyone must have noticed the absence of Federico Pol the usual bass player. Alan tells me the new guy is John Menonna. I don't know if this is a permanent arrangement.
The gigs really have been incredible! Click here for a review of the Bangalore gig, here for the concert in Chennai here for something on his appearance in Goa and here for an interesting interview
Phil is going to the gig in California next Friday so look out for his comments.
24th January 2008: Thank you to Marie Rose for her review of Señor Bachata which I have posted on the Seen and Heard Page .
A couple of weeks ago Fil posted a list of forthcoming gigs on the noticeboard. I totally missed his reference to a concert in Brazil which I have not seen listed elsewhere.
2nd March 2008: Go to the Seen and Heard Page to read Philip's review of the concert on 22nd February. He refers to the band including several new faces. My understanding is that John Mennona has permanently replaced Federico. My friend Bob Conti was taken ill in India and needed surgery which postponed his return home. Hope Tyger had a good holiday!
9th March 2008: Tina found this review of a gig in Panama . Does anyone know when it was?
The "band" page on José's personal site now has a piece on John Mennonna confirming he has permanently replaced Frederico as bassist. There is also a nice review of one of the Indian concerts in the Feliciano Blog.
Good news from Bob Conti who is now home and recovering from his surgery.
After my bad start to the year I hope you like this page's new look.
16th March 2008: I am reliably informed that the Panama gig was last June. José is now in Brazil. Tina found this interview from Brazilia and she and Phil both sent me Youtube "coverage" of the gig in Rio click here , here and here to see parts of the concert. When
I posted those links I realised there were more bits of the concert! Try searching round from these links!
23rd March 2008: HAPPY EASTER! Not much news but it is nice to see confirmation of the Australian gigs on José's Personal web site and to hear, also on his personal web site, about José's participation in the forthcoming papal visit to the USA.
30th March 2008: José's Personal Website has announced the songs he will perform before the Papal Mass on 20th April. "Lean on Me", "Che Sara" and "God Bless America"; I think the choice is perfect!.
Philip found this rendition of "En Mi Viejo San Juan" which is not the version from "A Mexico Con Amor" nor obviously a live performance; anyone know anything about it?
6th April 2008: Many people will have read about José's recent visit to the Strawberry Fields area of Central Park and seen the videos on Youtube . The guy who posted those videos has givn me some photos of José go to the picture page to see them.
13th April 2008: José and his management team have clearly done a good job in preparing the Australian press for the current tour and it was really great to see the results of this work in the form of some great articles in advance of the concerts. Click here , here , and here to read them.
16th April 2008: An early update because (firstly) José's renditions of "Light My Fire" , "What'd I Say" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face in Sydney are now on Youtube.
SECONDLY! his personal website will stream the concert which proceeds the Papal Mass on Sunday, so we can all see José perform live :)
19th April 2008: On the eve of what José describes as "a mega event" - his appearance before 90,000 people at Yankee Stadium in the concert which precedes the Papal Mass - he gave this video interview . I won't do an update tomorrow, go to his personal website using the link above to watch the concert instead.
23rd April 2008; There was some confusion over what EWTN were showing on Sunday but there is now a nice piece about the concert, and video footage of José's appearance, on his Personal Website click here to see it.
27th April 2008: Tina found this video . I can't pretend my Spanish is up to understanding it; can some one explain :)
4th May 2008: I am hoping the Austrian gig is the first "sign" of a European tour and will post more on this when I have it :)
11th May 2008: Sylvia found a geat interview on Youtube; click here , here, here and here to see it.
18th May 2008: Not much news but I did find this and this on Youtube. Anyone know anything about the "East LA" song?
25th May 2008: Bob Conti has been working on a new project; he is hosting a new tv series called "Road Stories" in which he interviews celebrities about life on the road. One of the first shows will focus on José's memories of his travels. click here to see a preview of the interview. I was intrigued by the comment about the Columbian drug baron and Bob told me "When we were in Colombia Jose did an anti drug concert for tens of thousands of people, the next day we performed (unknowingly) at a famous drug lord's club. Jose quipped "Hey, I didn't see him!" ... That's just Jose!".
This morning I found two songs from the concert at the Epcot Centre in Florida .
1st June 2008; It has been a quiet week, I am posting this as much because the first clip made me laugh as for the section with José.
8th June 2008: I just found this although Sylvia told me about it first.
9th June 2008: Have just heard that the Fantastic Feliciano site has "moved", use the link above to go there and make a new bookmark. Fil has worked hard over many years to create this fantastic site and we don't want to lose it!
15th June 2008: It seems the gig in Austria is a "private event" but I found this which suggests José will perform in Portugal on August 2nd.
22nd June 2008: Tina found this which suggests José will perform in Germany before he heads for Portugal............interesting :)
29th June 2008; Sylvia went to the mysterious "private event" in Austria and will, hopefully, tell me about it :). This site suggests José will appear in Spain with Gloria Estefan .
6th July 2008: Sylvia sent me this about the Austrian gig, "At the end of April I found out that it is not possible to buy tickets for the event only to win them in a SMS lottery and that the price for one SMS was quite expensive even more when you send it from another country. In the end I decided to send one, so at least I tried it. I was sure that it was totally in vain. In my whole life I never won something, really never. Therefore I forgot the whole thing completely.
I had a lot to do in May as our company was heading for the biggest printing industry exhibition in the world, which is held every 4 years in Germany. So on May 27th I went to Dusseldorf for nearly 3 weeks. On June the 8th I woke up at 6:00 in the morning to the sound of a SMS. I could not believe my eyes. It was the confirmation that I could pick up 2 tickets for the concert. Not enough luck?
I found out that I must pick-up the tickets personally as they will have the tickets only a week before the concert a time too short for sending them through mail to Slovakia. A very nice lady told me to call up one day before we are leaving Germany to see if the tickets are available, so that I could pick them up on my way home. She got the tickets on the same day I called. One day before my trip home.
Still not enough luck? The tickets turned to be out for the first row directly in front on the stage.
I still could not believe that I had so much luck.
So it came that on June 24th we were on the 3 hours long trip to Linz. Even the weather was nice to us, because the whole day it was incredible hot about 34°C.
The Voestival is an event with great stars organized by one of the biggest companies in Austria - the Voest Alpine a steel producer - and takes place in one of their production halls. I was suprised how good the sound in the hall was. From the inside with the stage in the middle and the big screens it did not look like a production hall. The BBC documentary movies "Blue Planet" was shown on 3 big screens with the music of George Fenton played live by the Bruckner Symphonic Orchestra. The conductor was George Fenton (composer of the soundtrack to the movie Ghandi).
After five BBC movies came the star of the evening - José. He looked great and sounded even better with his band (Johnny Mennonna, Greg Smith, Bob Conti, Tiger MacNeal) and the whole symphonic orchestra in the backround conducted for Jose by Jimmie Haskell. He played "Preludio Azteco" a wonderful instrumental, "Sound of Vienna" which is, in Austria, like Vienna's unofficial Anthem. Then came "Che Sera" and "Light My Fire". Then Bob Conti led him back behind the scenes. After the next 4 BBC movies José came back to sing two songs I never heard him singing before - "Beyond The Sea" and "Let Me Try Again", which for me was the best song of the evening - the Sinatra classic but with a unique special style and guitar backround only José could give it.
The 4000 people in the hall were standing during the ovation. The bonus was "Beyond The Sea" for the second time.
It was an incredible magic evening. The only bad thing of the whole story was that we came home about 3:30 in the morning and I must go to work after less than 4 hour of sleeping. That was hard but worth it. The whole story was really incredible. So many things which happened to make it possible that I saw Jose live for the second time in my life."
13th July 2008: I found these pictures of one of the Australian gigs which took place in April.
27th July 2008: Sylvia found this very old video does anyone know anything about it?
3rd August 2008: José and the band are in Europe and we have reports from Koblenz, however, first I need to say that there is a lot going on in my life at present, and for a while, I may not be able to do weekly updates but I will do what I can when I can anyway for now back to José in Koblenz.
Tina and Marie Rose saw José in Koblenz on Thursday here are their comments - Tina first:-
"last evening José gave the very best concert I have ever heard and this is my very personal review and impressions.
After 2 hours driving through the heat of 34 C, I arrived early at 4 p.m at the Castle Ehrenbreitstein. Coming in I heard the soundcheck and met surprisely my friend Marie-Rose and her husband Gerard. So we had time to spend on the terasse with a wonderful view over the Rhein and the Mosel and to talk.
At first we heard a group with a Guitarplayer named Udo Reinhardt, he must be young guy of the dynasty of Django Reinhardt. We enjoyed very much the Swing.
José startet with Ain`t no sunshine. Also he played spanish songs Tu me has echado olvido from the Senor Bolero CD, Por que tengo olvidar and Bamboleo. Later he told the audience his electric guitar is from Germany the guitar is very special and made of acrylic.
He rocked wonderful and the audience was mesmerized from the perfect sound, his presence and the harmony with the band. He sang his popular hits Rain, Che Sara and Light my fire. He made jokes and sang like Elvis sang in Germany Muß I denn zum Städtele hinaus.
The audience called him one time back on stage. Than he hold a wonderful speech about Peace and Peacemakers like Gandhi, Martin Luther King and John Lennon. All people were silent to hear every word he told us. José wants to be remembered as a Peacemaker, he wants to bring with his music peace all around the world. He is still doing that all the time. He sang with all power of his heart IMAGINE.
Driving back I reflected the concert in my mind and must say The world needs many Peacemaker in the maner of José Feliciano. I have had the chance to hear a few concerts of José but this one was the very best, most passionate, peaceful and harmoniously I heard. I hope he stays healthy and can bring his message to many many people all around the world".
Marie Rose wrote ;-
"On Thursday afternoon we ....... Gerard and me left a 14.00 PM to koblenz.
It was already a hot day and we where al hoping that the weather would stay as nice as it was, because the radio stations were talking about thunder and lightning with heavy reans.So we kept are fingers crossed for the concert of Jose.
Around 16.00 pm we arrived at the fortress of koblenz and we went at once inside to have a look at the sound check ,where we had a warm hello from Jim Durkin and the band. After saying hello to them, we went for a cop of coffee and a bite to eat, somewhere nice in the shadow preparing ourselves for the evening to come.
Around 19.30 we went inside to take our place, and thank God we had some nice places in front of the stage, so we could see everything very good.
Jose came up stage after the first group had done their performering.
Jose started the show with Ain't no sunshine then
Crazy heart
Billy Jean
Me has echado al olvido
I got a woman
Rain
Bamboleo
You don't know me
Sampa pa it
And than he started on his electric guitar He played a few tunes on it from the Wooden heart version from Elvis Presley but than in German, so of course the whole German audience was very pleased about that. He continued the show on the electric guitar with
Purple haze
Porque te tengo, que olvidar
Take a letter to Maria
Back ON the acoustic guitar he did:
Que Sara
Malagueña
Light my fire
What I say
Jose went off the stage and the crowd was calling him back for more and there where clapping in there hands until he came back.
Before Jose gave us his last farewell song, he pleaded for peace and understanding among people in this would, like he said that also Marthin Luther king and John lennon did before him.I can only agree with the touching words Jose was using in this song.
Imagine all the people living in peace with each other, what a beautiful world this could be.
Afterwards we went back stage to say Hello to Jose and the band, and as usually we had a warm welcome from Jose and the Guys.
It was the night for my birthday, so I could'n have dreamed no better evening than this beautiful event .
We went around 23.00 PM back to the car ,for a ride of 2.30 hours back home to Holland.
We had a wonderfull night,one of the many beautiful ones.
I wanna say thank you to Jose and the whole band and also to his managers, for giving us this night." Con Amor y Paz Marie-rose and Gerard.
31st August 2008: I am not in a position to resume weekly updates but Alan found this video of the Koblenz concert and Sylvia found this from José's Indian tour .
7th September 2008: It is José's birthday tomorrow and he has had quite a year :) Click here , here and here for videos from last week's gigs in Japan.
It seems "Mexico En El Corazon" will be released on 23rd September and, I hear, that Bob and José are working on a "Genius #2" CD.
21st September 2008: Amazon now have a picture of "Con Mexico En El Corazon" which is due for release on Tuesday. It is also available as downloads.
Sylvia found this
interview which I found interesting.
On a personal note, eight years ago yesterday I was in New York to see José in concert at Carnegie Hall and attended a party to celebrate his birthday, anyone out there remember that incredible night?
Hope someone does a review of the new album for me :)
12th October 2008: José had a great time in Argentine last week. He did a song from the new album and, I am told, "it was lovely.. went over very well. About 2,000 people at the show and they went nuts.. Jose did a beautiful show .. all in Spanish. He put the bolero medley in as well as all the other favorites. He is loved here."
Click here to see the bolero medley. He also did these two interviews click here and here .
26th October 2008: Marie Rose found this interview . Tina found this and this from the recent telethon for hurricane victims.
30th October 2008: It seems José will be in Singapore next Monday.
9th November 2008: Sylvia found this interview from February. There are ten parts so you may have to search a little for the rest of it!
14th November 2008: CONGRATULATIONS to José for winning a Latin Grammy for Senor Bachata. Click here to see photos of the event. Go here for a video of José performing with Gloria Estefan and Carlos Santana at the Grammy Ceremony.
23rd November 2008; Sylvia found these videos of the making of "Cantare Cantara" there are six videos in all.
4th December 2008: Having won a Latin Grammy, "Senor Bachata" has been nominated for a "mainstream" Grammy under the catagory of best tropical album. This 2008 version of "Feliz Navidad" made me smile.
14th December 2008: José's Christmas tour seems to be going well, last night he was at the Lehman Center in New York, where "A Legend in Concert" was recorded, before the concert he gave this interview.
21st December 2008: José has collaborated with James House on a track called "Santa Goes to Mexico" .
Someone with the user name Mediamanny53 has posted eight videos of the Lehman Center gig click here to see "Light my Fire" and to find the others. The new bass player is John Hatton who also plays in Brian Setzer's orchestra
24th December 2008: Click here to find José's first gig in 2009! Feliz Navidad and thank you to everyone for their friendship and support during this (for me) difficult year.
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