Back in August, Cara Dillon delivered her first online streamed concert, ‘Live at Cooper Hall’, which was broadcast globally on Facebook and YouTube. Following the glowing reviews and overwhelming response to that concert, Cara Dillon, together with Sam Lakeman, returns with her second offering from the intimate setting of Cooper Hall in Somerset which will be streamed on Youtube and Facebook this evening (15th October) at 8:00 pm. It will also be shown on Folk Radio UK’s Facebook Page.
Having set the bar extremely high, the first concert saw Cara and Sam deliver a brave and emotional performance which managed to capture that elusive quality which has escaped a host of lockdown concerts, a real sense of being present at a live concert. With the same talented team behind the first concert, Cara and Sam will be performing an entirely different set of songs following the same warm and intimate path that was so highly praised by their fans the first time around.
The glowing public response came as no surprise, as Cara revealed in our recent interview, they were making every effort to create an event that contained some of that magic an audience expects in a real live concert.
Cara: We knew that staging a production of this size would be costly but we also hoped it would provide the focus and sense of occasion that would result in a better performance. Even having a just a crew of 5 people in the hall meant we were performing to ‘people’… the lights, cameras and recording environment only added to the sense of ‘live performance’ and it really, really helped put us into that mindset. Obviously, there’s no getting away from the awkward silences after each song finishes… that’s just plain weird and there’s no substitute for a round of applause no matter what anyone says, but from the moment Sam played the first notes on the piano or plucked a string I could close my eyes and I was in the moment.
They have a number of talented people working behind the scenes to make it special including Dom Monks (audio engineer) and filmmakers Simon Whitehead and Brendan Lines along with a local lighting team. They made a point of using local people.
Sam: It was great to use local people to Frome (apart from Brendan who’s all the way from distant Bristol). We’ve known Dom for many years as we occasionally borrow each others studio equipment and Simon has filmed a couple of videos for us in the past. It was the first time we’d used the local AV rental company AML Group, they were so happy to get a call from someone wanting to book a job after months of cancelled bookings. We were all interested in how it was going to work with social distancing and hygiene considerations. Dom was more rehearsed in the process as he’d already recorded Laura Marling’s Union Chapel lockdown concerts and also Nick Cave’s solo broadcast from Alexander Palace, but the rest of us had barely left our houses. It was surprisingly straightforward because there were only 7 of us on site at any one time and there was plenty of space to operate within.
As before, the online concert will be free to view on Facebook and Youtube and will also be available to download in high-resolution audio from Bandcamp afterwards but if you wanted to tip Cara and Sam then there’s a safe and simple way to show your generosity and send them a message. Cara personally replied to almost all who left a message at the last concert… although it took her quite some time.
You can send a tip to Cara and Sam here: https://www.donate-to-caradillon.co.uk/
Streaming Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/2761207674150160/
Youtube (subscribe to get a reminder): https://www.youtube.com/c/CaraDillonsings/