On Friday 21 August Jonathan is fronting his first ‘own’ concert in the magnificent setting of Gawsworth Hall, Cheshire’s open air theatre.
I attended when he performed there a couple of years ago and the surroundings are breathtaking. The audience grandstand is covered so no risk of being caught in a summer evening shower - not unheard of in the UK during summertime.
The evening is bound to be a sell out so may I suggest you book as soon as possible. Tickets are only £25 each. The grandstand accommodates around 1,000 and there are facilities for wheelchairs and those who have mobility problems.
Gawsworth Hall also has a lovely tea room where you can fill up with delicious home baking and the Richards family also encourage people to bring their own picnics to have in the grounds. Lightweight, foldable chairs could be beneficial to those who don’t like sitting on the grass or, like me, can’t get up once down!
The Old Hall itself is definitely worth a visit too and well worth the small entrance fee. I can promise you the afternoon/evening will be memorable and you may even bump into some Fantoines as they are travelling from far and wide to attend this unique event. There will never be another first Jonathan Antoine concert will there?
Please come along and support this exceptional young tenor whose voice will still be ringing in your ears as you travel home. I look forward to seeing you there!
Reviewing on Amazon
Back again!! Several readers have asked me to repost this from last week. I’ve made a few changes because my suggested way doesn’t work for everyone outside the UK but hopefully it does now. Please note Tenore has now been released in the US, Canada, Germany, Japan and other countries so the same system will apply on these sites. How I wish Amazon would make it easier to review single tracks of albums but they don’t - yet. I haven’t tried Amazon.com’s Tenori MP3 page, or on .ca, .de, .jp but I should think they work in a similiar way to the UK site.
The following is part of an email I received recently from a delightful Fantoine marketing expert, Sue Zange, who asked if I could explain the importance of Amazon reviews on Tenore.
I know we are all loving the wonderful success Jonathan is achieving with this first solo album Tenore. We Fantoines can help even more in keeping the momentum going. Let’s keep the pace up with letting everyone know how wonderful it is and post our reviews on Amazon. #telltheworldaboutjonathan
Amazon reviews are a critical part of ensuring Tenore stays high in the charts. Of course not all of us are wordsmiths and even those who like writing reviews can find it slightly difficult finding enough adjectives to describe Jonathan’s exceptional talent and personality. One word will suffice if you’re stuck, because now Amazon don’t insist upon a defined number of words in a review. You can write a review on Amazon even though you purchased Tenore elsewhere.
Here is the link for the CD on Amazon UK. Once you’ve finished your review on that page, please go to the Tenore MP3 page and do another if you don’t mind. Not tired yet? Then scroll down the MP3 page and review each track by clicking on the name of each track (not the ‘play’ arrow). If you have problems please email me.
If you do read other reviews please click the YES button at the side of ‘do you find this helpful’. All these actions are collated by Amazon and will keep Tenori high in the listings.
Once you’ve done all that, sit back and relax in the knowledge that you’ve made a great contribution towards keeping 'our boy' up there where he belongs. In a couple of days your help will be needed all over again by reviewing, using the same procedure, on Amazon.com once Tenore is released in the US.
Thank you all so much. Every little helps and remember, your review is as important as every other one.
Should anyone have any questions about reviewing please email me and I’ll do my best to help. Email address is over there. >>>
Once again this week Jonathan tops the Classical Album charts (for the third week running) and Classic FM’s chart too (for the second week running). A marvellous achievement - I’m sure you all agree.
Another exciting piece of news is that there is now an Official Fan website for all you lovely Fantoines so I see no need to continue with the blog.
On the new site there is a forum, which is an area for all to discuss past and future events and all things Jonathan, but please remember it is a public forum. In other words anyone who has access to the internet will be able to read what you write. Do think twice before you contribute anything personal to it because once it’s on the internet it’s there forever.
I wish the new site every success and hope it goes from strength to strength - which I’m sure will be the case. There will be one last post in the future when I will close the poll and let you know the results, but I will leave it open at the moment because TENORE is released today in the US!
So it’s cheerio from me and thank you all for your support in the past year. It’s been fun and hopefully helpful to those of you who don’t use Facebook and/or Twitter.
Note: This blog will not be deleted but left online as it is a record of Jonathan’s early journey in his professional career.
Many of us who use Facebook and/or Twitter chat about out favourite TENORE track. Jonathan likes all of them of course.
I know some of you have noticed I placed a Poll in the right hand column >> last week. In fact there have been over 2,000 votes to date which is wonderful, although I know some of you have voted for more than one track so the figure doesn’t mean voters but votes.
My favourite track(s) change regularly but I do have four which are played on a daily basis.
You can vote for as many tracks as you like and as often as you like, so I will leave the poll in place for a while. Once you’ve voted you will see the results of other votes.
Have a go. Don’t forget, you can come back anytime and vote again if you change your mind about your choice(s). The results will be interesting.
Just a gentle reminder - have you posted your Amazon/iTunes reviews?
Captured by the lovely Fantoine I mentioned in yesterday’s post, who has firmly stated she doesn’t want her name made public because she ‘gets carried away with the moment and forgets she’s recording’.
Of course many of us know who she is because she will attempt to record Jonathan at every opportunity and then she is immensely generous sharing her recordings with us.
A big thank you Sally Mrs Anonymous!
Yesterday Jonathan took part in London Poppy Day which is a fantastic annual event organised by the British Legion.
He started his day on a London bus visiting No 10 Downing Street (home of the British Prime Minister) and images of him flew around the television channels during the morning. The above was captured by Jan Smith Head Fantoine who keeps us on our toes!
Following his chat with the Prime Minister, the bus left for Covent Garden where Jonathan did a special Balcony Show on the Uk release day of his album (13 October in case you’ve forgotten).
We’re very lucky to have a recording of his performance at Covent Garden taken by one of the Fantoines, but I’ve been a little remiss and not asked her permission to use it - although I’m sure she will be thrilled - so ‘tune in’ tomorrow, by which time I will have her assent. It’s certainly a video you won’t want to miss.
The photograph to the left is a sneak preview of Jonathan on stage at Covent Garden yesterday afternoon.
There were lots of photographers there so other photos are bound to appear on the internet. Try ‘googling' for them.
Another subject altogether: Reviewing on Amazon
The following is part of an email I received recently from a delightful Fantoine marketing expert, Sue Zange, who asked if I could explain the importance of Amazon reviews on Tenore.
I know we are all loving the wonderful success Jonathan is achieving with this first solo album Tenore. We Fantoines can help even more in keeping the momentum going. Let’s keep the pace up with letting everyone know how wonderful it is and post our reviews on Amazon. #telltheworldaboutjonathan
Amazon reviews are a critical part of ensuring Tenore stays high in the charts. Of course not all of us are wordsmiths and even those who like writing reviews can find it slightly difficult finding enough adjectives to describe Jonathan’s exceptional talent and personality. One word will suffice if you’re stuck, because now Amazon don’t insist upon a defined number of words in a review. You can write a review on Amazon even though you purchased Tenore elsewhere.
Here is the link for the CD on Amazon UK. Once you’ve finished your review on that page, please go to the Tenore MP3 page and do another if you don’t mind. Not tired yet? Then scroll down the MP3 page and review each track by clicking on the name of each track (not the ‘play’ arrow). If you have problems please email me.
If you do read other reviews please click the YES button at the side of ‘do you find this helpful’. All these actions are collated by Amazon and will keep Tenori high in the listings.
Once you’ve done all that, sit back and relax in the knowledge that you’ve made a great contribution towards keeping 'our boy' up there where he belongs. In a couple of days your help will be needed all over again by reviewing on Amazon.com once Tenore is released in the US.
Thank you all so much. Every little helps and remember, your review is as important as every other one.
Should anyone have any questions about reviewing please email me and I’ll do my best to help. Email address is over there. >>>
My dream would be to post a video with Jonathan singing Happy Birthday, but that’s not going to happen, so the graphic will have to do.
It’s a year since I started this blog and to date I’ve published 157 posts about ‘our boy’ and his achievements. How time flies.
I want to say a big thank you to the thousands of you who have visited in the past 12 months. Also, I’d like to give a big thank you to the many Fantoines who have given their permission to use their fabulous photographs, videos and creative works of art. Their input to posts is invaluable. Thank you each and every one of you. There are too many to name individually (that’s my excuse because I have a dreadful memory and I may cause offence if I leave someone out).
Quite a few people have asked who is involved in writing the blog and I have had to admit it’s a ‘one-man-band’. Me.
My online pseudonym is Subrosa although I use JonathanFan to post here. Don’t ask me why I didn’t use Subrosa because I’ve no sensible answer! It’s not easy to remember so far back (ageing has its negatives), but I possibly thought JonathanFan was more appropriate to this particular blog.
It was my idea to have a source, outwith Facebook and Twitter, for anyone who wanted information about the fantastic tenor Jonathan Antoine. There was very little online about Jonathan a year ago and I thought it important to boost his online presence because, as most of you know, Facebook and Twitter are only a small percentage of the internet experience.
That was then. What a difference a year makes doesn’t it? Jonathan has come into his own and when anyone googles his name they see up-to-date images and articles about his ongoing achievements. Wonderful isn’t it?
Note: May I reiterate that this blog is not associated in any way whatsoever with Jonathan, his family, Sony (his record label) or his management. It is run by me for his worldwide fans and the opinions expressed are my own. The comments - always greatly appreciated - are yours.
