ALTERNATE TITLE: “This Is the Blog That Never Ends, It Just Goes On and On, My Friends…”

I have got to tell you, last night was one of the most amazing experiences of my life - as I knew it would be. To recap: I won tickets through a competition on Delta Goodrem’s [my favourite pop singer] official forum to see the gorgeous girl herself perform live for Vodafone’s music program, Live at the Chapel.

“The Chapel” is actually a converted chapel on Little Chapel Street in Prahran, Melbourne. Basically, I won tickets to the taping of Delta’s performance, which will be shown on television next month, and I’ll update with details as it gets closer to the date. You should watch it if you can. It was an amazing performance.

And this is gonna be a loooooooooong entry. So here is a cut:

That was a cut.

I awoke from a very restless night of sleep and got ready for the performance. During this time, I had the idea of ringing the Kmart store at which I had laid claim to a poster of Delta’s new album cover. I wasn’t supposed to have it until the album “left the charts” (and it debuted at number one last Sunday) but after explaining that I would most likely be meeting Delta that night and wanted to get the poster signed, they relented, and I got the poster.

We got to the Chapel Street precinct about, oh… 3:00 PM or so. We figured out where the venue was and went inside briefly to check that we had the right place. We also left the poster with the box office (it’s a tall, hard cardboard poster). Wanna see the poster?

We went and had a bite to eat at Pran Central, and I went to Sportsgirl [an Australian clothing chain] to find a pendant on a long chain to wear over the grey mini-dress, black leggings and the black suede boots (which I bought recently in Chapel Street!) I had decided to wear. We finally chose a heart pendant in charcoal silver and Mum paid for it.

After reviving my hair and make-up in a bathroom at Pran Central, we decided to head over to Chapel off Chapel to see what was happening. A few other winners from the forum and the Nova radio competition were already there and we made nervous small talk until security let us in.

At the door, a woman checked that my mum and I were who we said we were, and handed us a special red Vodafone lanyard with a tag reading ‘Vodafone Live at the Chapel - Series 3: Delta Goodrem’. We were informed that it was open bar, and appetisers would be coming around on trays. So we got ourselves something to drink and went out into the courtyard.

And, who was there in said courtyard, but Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum!

I didn’t want to get an autograph or photo until someone else had. Soon enough, someone else had done both, so I went up and got a signature and photo.

At left is the autograph. You can click it if you would like to read it, or if not, it says: ‘To Sonya, keep rockin’, Molly M’. Molly wasn’t overly personable, but then again, it must be annoying having people recognise you all the time (but if you will wear your trademark cowboy hat…).

So we waited a bit longer, and soon (but not soon enough) it was almost time for the performance to start. We waited anxiously to be let into the chapel. The security were, well, stereotypical security: big, strong, and intimidating. And rude.

We were let into the Chapel around 6:00 PM. Internally, it’s a beautiful set-up. It’s very intimate. The front rows consist of comfy red bean bags and small leather couches. The competition winners got to sit there (including me and my dear Mum). The rest of the Chapel is stadium-style seating. The stage is lit by lights and candles positioned on stands around the place. This makes the room quite warm.

You can get an idea of what the “stage” looks like in this photo.

My mum and I sat together on one of the couches, but during one of the songs, when Delta encouraged us to come forward, I found myself a rather strange position on the bean bags. And stayed there for the rest of the show. My legs were positioned very awkwardly.

Before Delta performed, the emcee, whose name totally escapes me, asked us to take part in some ‘clapping practice’, which consisted of us all clapping very enthusiastically (they’ll apparently use that applause in the show) and asked us to pose for some audience shots. My hands probably still hurt.

Then after that was done, the emcee gave the audience a run-down of Delta’s achievements, and then introduced The Most Beautiful Woman in the Entire World. The applause and screaming was deafening. I am not ashamed to say that, when Delta walked out to the stage, tears filled my eyes. She sat at the piano, and took off her shoes (she does this all the time, it’s her trademark).

She began her set with the opening track from her new album (called Delta), Believe Again, which is an epic ballad with lots of violins and ethereal vocals. Put simply: it’s a beautiful track. And it was wonderful to hear it performed live.

Delta, prior to this concert, had been fighting off a lingering cold, and it was that night that her voice finally returned. I was relieved, because she hadn’t been sounding her best at her other appearances.

Delta as a person, to look at, is… I would describe her as arresting. If you’re in a room with her, your eyes will naturally focus on her. She’s one of those people who just draws you in. I think they call it the ‘X’ factor. You know what I mean? I don’t know what it is, it’s not simply a matter of her being completely beautiful or the gorgeous clothes she wears, but whatever ‘it’ is that she has, she has ‘it’ in spades.

So, it was a triumphant opening, and the triumphant return of Delta’s beautiful voice. I cried while I was singing along. It was fantastic to the point of being almost overwhelming. If I’d been standing, I would have probably fallen over (no, that’d be nothing to do with my high-heeled boots. Never).

After finishing ‘Believe Again’, she segued quite smoothly into Possessionless, another song from her latest album. It was written quite soon after Delta battled cancer. I love the lyrics, for instance, ‘All I got is my body and it’s naked for you/All I got is this heart that I’m willing to lose…’ I’d highlight more, but that would be writing out the whole song. It’s a ballad with some drums added to give it a bit of ‘oomph’. She played the piano, and everyone sang along.

By this point (very quickly!) I was completely hypnotised, and taking photos like a fiend. Snap. Snap. Snap.

Delta introduced her next song, a cover of a John Farnham [legendary Australian singer] song called Burn for You, which is a romantic ballad and an Australian classic. She performed it sitting on top of the piano while her guitarist (Rich) accompanied her.

I’m not generally a fan of the acoustic thing, but hearing things performed live has a way of making you love them. Take my mother, who doesn’t like the song. Delta’s cover made her kind of not hate it.

Next up was You Will Only Break My Heart, an upbeat pop track, also from her new album. Delta got up and moved around the room, danced with some of the audience members, and generally had a grand old time. The song is totally infectious. It’s obvious Delta really enjoyed herself.

Delta then returned to her piano to perform her first hit single, Born to Try. This isn’t actually one of my favourites of hers, but I enjoyed it well enough. It was very stripped back, just Delta on the piano to accompany herself singing and Rich playing the guitar.

She then performed another track from the new album called God Laughs. This is one of my two least favourites on what is a fantastic album. The performance didn’t make me love it any more or any less. It’s about her parents’ divorce last year. I was impressed at her candour given that her dad was in the audience with his new partner! I thought, ‘She’s game!’. However, she stuffed up a lyric in one of the verses, so I guess she realised who was there!

She performed it again before the finale, and sang it correctly.

After that, Delta performed her latest hit single (at the time of writing), In This Life. I’m gonna be honest, and say that I like this song. But I don’t like it performed live. She does something to it which I don’t like, changing the arrangement. And the acoustic thing really didn’t do it justice. A shame. Possibly the only real lowlight in the entire set.

Again with the acoustic thing on one of my favourites of hers, Not Me, Not I. This is an epic ballad (she’s got a few of them, eh?) from her first album, and it has violins and is generally big and orchestral. She sounded great, but the acoustic thing with the guitar was somehow not right. I suppose I enjoyed it well enough, because I really love the song. I listen to it a lot when I break up with someone.

This is where Delta performed God Laughs for the second time (minus lyrical stuff-ups).

After that, someone requested Brave Face from the new album, and Delta obliged with the first verse, the audience (including yours truly) helping her. It was a really lovely moment. I don’t think it will make it to the TV broadcast, though.

Delta took a vote on the song she should perform for the finale. Lost Without You won, so that’s what she performed. That song is a big ballad, but I’m used to it being performed acoustically too, and it was, although Delta did play the piano. The real highlight of that performance was when she began singing the lyrics - in Spanish! Very well done, sounded fluent and assured. A big cheer went up when she started singing in Spanish.

After she finished ‘Lost Without You’ she walked off the stage, and the performance was over, but the night was still young. That’s because when Delta leaves a venue, her leave-taking is a long stretch of time.

She is known for being incredibly generous with her time and will sign anything you put in front of her, take photos with anyone - brilliant smile always at the ready - and really communicates with her fans.

However, They (you know who ‘They’ are. They are they) insisted that Delta wouldn’t be meeting anyone. So, a kind lady who had an ‘in’ with the venue, she was some sort of publicist, took my giant album poster and copies of the deluxe editions of ‘Innocent Eyes’ and ‘Delta’ away, saying she would bring them back signed, and did I want anything in particular written on the poster?

While I was waiting for the very kind lady to return, I decided to ‘confess’ in the Chapel confessional, which is a little booth you go into and rhapsodise about the show to the cameraman. God, I hope my confession segment doesn’t make it to the broadcast! But it was fun, that’s the first fifteen minutes of fame I’ll never have!

I felt so guilty being asked this, as I was standing with a group of people from the Delta forums, and it was really looking like Delta wasn’t going to be meeting people that night. But I think it was the poster that did it, we had clearly gone to some effort to get it, and it was big and cumbersome. So it got signed. It is not personally signed, which is a shame, but for the cynics among us, you know what implications that has.

Despite her management’s best efforts, and the efforts of The Powers That Be in general, Delta is always happy to meet the people who love her music. And that’s why those people love her.

Her stylist has evidently cottoned on to this, and took up a restful possie in the van that had come to take Delta away (ha ha). Unfortunately, the management still haven’t got it through their thick heads and stood there glowering at people. Why they’re Delta’s management if they’re not prepared to understand the kind of person Delta is is totally beyond my comprehension. Big ‘whatever!’ in their direction.

Meeting Delta can really knock a person out. I sort of start stammering and being very shy - shier than I usually am - and sort of, kind of, maybe, forget I have a tongue in my head that can create words. I told her we were quite well colour-coordinated - she was in a silver top and black jeans, and as you know, I was in a grey dress with black leggings and boots. She complimented me on my pendant (I would have put it around her neck instead if she had asked), and I got a photo with her that I really don’t like much, but it is an improvement on the last photo I had with her at her Southland instore.

I thanked her for signing my big poster and two CD covers, she said, ‘You’re very welcome’, and then I couldn’t think of anything else to say, so I said, “Thank you so much for tonight, Delta” and my mum and I left the mob scene and got into Dad’s car (good timing!).

When I got home, I viewed all the photos I had taken. Most were pretty disappointing, but I did the best I could with what I had, and you can view the photos at my Flickr:

Flickr - Delta Goodrem: Vodafone Live at the Chapel

Whew. That was one long recount. If you’ve made it this far, good on you, ’cause there ain’t no more. Thanks for sticking with it. I wish you all could have been there because she is amazing.