As you can see in the photo above (although Lisa's hair is in the way) Lisa Lambe is wearing the jacket I had made for her. This project was long in the works. Back in 2009 on our flight to Ireland for the Songs From The Heart DVD recording at Powerscourt, I proposed to 2 of the administrators of the Mairead Forum my idea about having jackets made for the forum members. I had the company picked out and the design of the jackets would be the Fiddler Crossing Sign with added Irish and American flags signifying the tribute Celtic Woman song "O America." I commissioned the first 3 jackets as a test in mid August and received them on September 1, 2009. The first 3 jackets were made for myself, Scott Manke and Mairead. I was so pleased with how they turned out that I posted photos on the Mairead Forum and told other members of the forum that they could order the jackets from me for the fall 2009 tour. I had one stipulation, no forum member could wear their jacket in public until Mairead received hers first. You can read about the details of the presentation of that jacket to Mairead here. http://maireadforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=2150.0 In this thread are photos of the jackets and the story behind it. Now onto the "Lambe Crossing" jacket.
Lisa joined Celtic Woman in 2011 after Lynn departed following the Australian tour of 2010. The spring tour of 2011 and then for the rest of that whole year (with a few exceptions) was a really bad year for the fans of Celtic Woman in general. Those issues are covered extensively on this blog.
2012 saw the release of the Believe DVD and the tours to follow. 2012 saw the departure of Lisa Kelly and the addition of Susan McFadden. Lisa Lambe in less then a year struck a cord and a fan following not just because she is a great singer but for another very important reason as well. Lisa Lambe is extremely receptive to the fans. I can think of no other member of Celtic Woman, other then Deirdre and Orlagh, that have been as receptive to the fans as Lisa Lambe. Lisa Kelly once was but that came to an end once her husband became the general manager of Celtic Woman LTD and later the CEO.
As documented on this blog, there have been many issues related in how the fans have been treated by the management of Celtic Woman. Between the years 2007 through 2011 management basically had a lockdown on nearly all interaction between the artists and the fans. There was one exception to that. When Lisa Lambe joined Celtic Woman she never abided by the lockdown. Lisa Lambe, from DAY ONE has been very interactive with her fans on a EQUAL BASIS. On Twitter she responds to most of the tweets she gets. At shows she is very engaging from the stage. When she is approached by fans on the street she almost always stops to talk to them. And finally, if she recognizes familiar fans she goes out of her way to get their attention and spends time with them.
I personally had only met Lisa Lambe 2 times prior to this years tour. I had never tweeted her prior to about a week before the Portland show this year. This means I have had almost no interaction with Lisa Lambe except from the stage and at 2 meet and greets. I have received many reports from others via phone calls, and online messages about their interactions with Lisa Lambe. As a result I began to kick around the idea of having a jacket made for her.
A lot of thought went into the creation of that jacket before I did it. I had to weigh many factors. First of all I did not want a repeat of what occurred with the Fiddler Crossing jackets. Mairead was very receptive to the jacket in the beginning, as were the other artists. I had Fiddler Crossing jackets made for all the artists of Celtic Woman in the spring of 2010. The Mairead Forum for all intensive purposes is the real Celtic Woman Forum. The Mairead Forum is not just a forum as a tribute to Mairead. It is also the de facto Celtic Woman Forum. Celtic Woman management back in 2005, early 2006 made the decision to divide the fan base on the official Celtic Woman Forum they ran on their website. They made this decision with malice and made it public. That decision led a few months later to them shutting down the forum on their website. As a result, Danielle Spurr (I wont use her married name here) created the fan based Celtic Woman Forum currently located at celticwomanforum.com. It was she who first registered the domain name and designed the first CWF. The jacket idea really wasn't mine at the start. The idea originated in Toronto back in 2006 by another fan named Jan Harper. It was her idea to have Celtic Woman Forum jackets done. That never happened because of the division Celtic Woman management started by pitting fan against fan.
When I created the fiddler crossing jackets, they were something I was very proud of. However, by the middle of 2011 I regretted having them done. I want to make it clear here. In total I bore the cost of having 11 jackets made plus the setup costs. Five of those jackets went to the artists of CW. There were about another 30 jackets ordered by Mairead Forum members which they paid for. On numerous occasions there were forum questions submitted to Mairead for her to answer. Those questions to date have yet to be answered. One of the questions was concerning her jacket. Did she ever wear it? I along with others have come to the conclusion that it's doubtful that none of the artists have their jackets or wear them. We asked on day one for a photo of Mairead wearing hers. I accept the fact that in total just for the artists alone I spent $1,100 on those jackets and it was a total waste. Furthermore as time went on I noticed that the Celtic Woman management and the production crew would look at those that had those jackets with absolute hate in their eyes. Mairead's future husband was the worst. I didn't know who he was at the time, but in Jacksonville, FL 2010 we were getting into the elevator of the hotel. Jim came up to the elevator which was about to close. I held the door open for him but once he saw the jacket he refused to get in. The look in his eyes is one I'll never forget. There were only 2 of us in the elevator. I mentioned to Scott about the evil look we were given and it was then then it was explained to me who it was.
Going back to the Lambe Crossing jacket, I had to ask myself if Lisa would appreciate it? Would she wear it? And would it be money well spent considering that it was going to cost almost $300 to have made? When I talked with several people about it and with much thought I was able to answer "yes" to all of those questions. It was conveyed to me that if anyone would wear it proudly, it would be Lisa. So I bit the bullet and had the jacket done.
Once the jacket was done, I email pictures of it to several people. They all liked it. Lisa Lambe was told that Scott Manke and I would have a special gift for her in Portland but she wasn't told what it was. One week before the Portland show Scott ended up in the hospital and had to have emergency surgery. As a result he wasn't able to attend the shows we planed to attend a year in advance. Glenn Skinner took his place.
The idea for being able to present Lisa with her special gift came in the fact that we know the girls love Starbucks. I was hoping to be able to meet her at the Starbucks near the venue in Portland. That didn't happen so I had 2 other ideas. I would give to jacket either to Bubba or Ray before the show if I saw them or I would show the jacket to Lisa during her first solo since we were in the front row. Then after the show I would find a staff member to give it to her. In the end I showed it to her during the show.
We were seated in the front row. When the show started I had the jacket in my lap. The second song was Lisa's first solo piece. During the whole song I held the Jacket to my chest pointing at the name tag that said "Li'l Lambe" I pointed at it the whole song. I didn't know this at the time but Glenn also was pointing to it as well. When Lisa saw the name tag she smiled. Once I knew she saw it I put it down and unfolded the jacket so I could show it to her at the conclusion of Dulaman. When the song ended I stood up and showed her the back of the jacket. The look on her face was priceless. It was in that moment that I know it was worth every dime I paid.
The end of the first act started the intermission. There were several people around us that came up to us and mentioned the look Lisa gave me when I held up that jacket. It was Jim M. on the forum who suggested my giving the jacket to Lisa's husband Simon after the show. I told him that I didn't know Simon but would give it to him if Jim introduced me. When the show ended Simon was near the front of the theater to our left. Jim took me over to him and introduced me to him. I talked to him and showed him the jacket. He was impressed and told me Lisa is going to love it. I told him that I had already showed it to her during thee show so she already knew about it. He agreed to give it to her and to have a photo of her with the jacket.
Simon is very nice. We spent at least 15 minutes talking to him before we left the theater. I am so grateful that Jim was there and was able to introduce me to Simon. I am so happy with how that event took place. To be honest, I'm glad I wasn't able to give Lisa that jacket to her in person before the show. The way it was unveiled to her and the fact that her husband accepted it and gave it to her was more then I could have asked for. Everything fell into place better then I had hoped.
The next night in Vancouver, BC Glenn and I waited by the busses but Lisa had already come out and gone to the buss before we arrived. Chloe came out to get on the bus and she stopped to talked to us. I asked her about the jacket and she said she was jealous and wanted us to create a jacket for her. I think that is going to be in he works in the near future. Simon came out and I flagged him down. I asked him about the jacket and he told me Lisa loves it. I asked him if it fit because I was concerned that it might be too big. He told me it fit fine. The he says to me "I have to be honest with you, I think I'll be wearing that jacket more then Lisa." I thought that was great. I told him no problem. I'm glad that her husband is as receptive as Lisa is. Simon told me that he took a photo of Lisa wearing the jacket and that she tweeted it. I told him I would look at it the first chance I got. Simon clearly isn't the jealous or insecure type. Walking away from Vancouver left me feeling very proud and happy that I made the decision to go forward with having that jacket made. But the real kicker came 2 nights later in Seattle.
