St David's Hall Celebrates 25 Years
of Fine Music and Events

St David's Hall - The National Concert Hall of Wales opened its doors for the first time to the public on 20 August 1982. Members of the public were able to see for themselves what the Hall was all about! The Box Office, Foyers Bars and Restaurant were ‘on show' from 10am to 10:30pm.

The whole building was hive of activity, inside the Auditorium the acoustics were being tested, an exacting science, upon which the building would be judged in the fullness of time. Final touches were being made to install the biggest cinema screen in Cardiff at 9580mm.

St David's Hall currently employs 60 permanent staff (see left) and approximately 100 casuals.

Celebrity tributes have been pouring in with birthday messages coming from Jamie Cullum, Lesley Garrett, Katherine Jenkins, Aled Jones and Bryn Terfel to name but a few.

St David's Hall Facts

• Over 10 million people have attended performances at St David's Hall. 125,000 of these have been children attending St David's Hall's Just Kidding events.
• Over 21,000 people flooded the venue in one day when it first opened its doors to the public in 1982.
• The Queen Mother performed the official opening in February 1983, by which time St David's Hall had already transformed the artistic life of the Capital city. As Her Majesty said, ‘This exciting development will add greatly to the quality of life for the city of Cardiff and the people of the Principality.'
• In 25 years there have been over 1500 orchestral concerts at St David's Hall - which includes a staggering 39,000 violinists taking to the stage in total.
• The world's finest orchestras and conductors have performed at St David's Hall including The Kirov, Vienna Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. the great conductors have included Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir George Solti, Sir Simon Rattle, and Yehudi Menuhin; The Hall plays host to the massively successful LloydsTSB Welsh Proms Cardiff and the world famous biennial BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition
• As well as classical music St David's Hall also plays host to jazz, soul, pop, rock, dance, children's theatre, ballet, musicals, stand-up comedy, thriving education and community activities delivered through Arts Active - and of course the annual Lloyds TSB Welsh Proms. With the largest seating capacity of all the theatre venues in Cardiff it regularly attracts some of the biggest stars. The concert platform has been graced by the world's finest artists. Stars of the stage have included Rudolph Nureyev, Will Young, Bob Hope, Billy Connolly and Tina Turner; together with world famous singers such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and our own Bryn Terfel, Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey.
• World Renowned Conductor, Valerie Gergeiev, commented on his last visit to St David's Hall in 2006 -‘With great joy we are back in this great hall and great city. St David's Hall has some of the finest acoustics in the world.'
• Students from all of Cardiff's leading educational establishments have graduated at St David's Hall. The numbers have grown dramatically since 300 University College Cardiff students graduated at St David's Hall in 1983. 2007 saw nearly 10,000 students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff University, UWIC and the Open University graduate at Wales's National Concert Hall.
• Wales's finest Orchestras regularly perform at St David's Hall including the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra and of course BBC National Orchestra of Wales who are orchestra in residence at St David's Hall.
• St David's Hall has one of the largest pipe organs in the UK. With 3986 pipes this enormous musical instrument is one of the most remarkable features of this unique concert hall. Consisting of nearly 4000 pipes, this monumental instrument produces the most incredible sound and will receive a rare outing in the forthcoming Lloyds TSB Welsh Proms Cardiff season from renowned organist Thomas Trotter.

Box Office Team

Between them the ten Box Office staff at the Hall have nineteen children, seventeen grand/great grandchildren and a total of 199 years service. Karen Stevens is the Manager and Jane Salim the Assistant Manager.

Karen say's technology has improved rapidly over the 25 years I've been at the Hall, when we started selling tickets at the Box Office all credit card payments were processed by hand and entered into a ledger.

Karen Conway, (seated on the left of the photo) receptionist at the Hall for 23 years has seen many changes literally, as reception was first situated on Level 2 away from the hustle and bustle of the ground floor foyer. Karen say's "Being on the ground floor means that I'm able to meet and help a lot of people during the course of the day, from students wanting information on the Hall, to tourists wanting to know where the shops are. Local people have a real affection for the Hall, and foreign visitors are always particularly impressed with it, especially the auditorium.

The ‘Earlybirds' of St David's Hall

Whilst the rest of us are waiting for the alarm clock to sound, a 'troupe' of nine workers, officially known as floor technicians, are here at the Hall working tirelessly to keep the Hall looking good.

Maureen Blood - Team Leader, has worked at the Hall for 18 years and says," there is more to cleaning than picking up a broom, and by attending courses we have all obtained a British Institute Cleaning Science certificate. Even though we are sub-contracted we feel very much a part of the Hall and enjoy our work here."

August is the month St David's Hall gets its ‘care and repair' makeover, so besides their daily routine the floor technicians are preparing themselves for the extra tasks involved in keeping the Hall's high standards of hygiene and safety.

Did You Know?

• St David's Hall has sold 962,000 ice-creams in the last 25 years
• St David's Hall still has 8 members of staff who have been working at the venue since its inception in 1993
• The Hall has 8 grand pianos and each pianist picks their favourite before a performance.
• 125,000 students have graduated at the venue.
• Over 39,000 violinists have taken to the stage.
• Over 10 million people have attended an event at the Hall.

Original Eight

Eight original staff members are still working at the Hall today;

Richard James, Technical Manager, Jane Bailey, Senior House Manager, Wendy Brown, House Manager, Karen Stevens, Box Office Manager, Peter Goodridge, House Officer, Muriel Paul, Box Office Assistant, Kathy Tipples, Box Office Assistant and Wendy Scanlon, Marketing Officer.

St David's Hall Friends Committee

St David's Hall Friends membership scheme was ‘born' in March 1983 following suggestions by a handful of St David's Hall's supporters. By February 1986 the total of Friends members had risen to 6,000 at a cost per year of £5. In May 1987 Mr David Smith, a member of the Friends suggested giving members the opportunity to become more involved in supporting the Hall. Within months special events connected to the Hall's programme of events were being organised, social gatherings, reciprocal visits to similar venues, behind the scene tours etc. On 1 September 1987 an inaugural meeting was held and a provisional Friends Committee was at work arranging many more exciting events and ‘trips'.

21 Years down the line and several changes of elected officers later, the Friends Committee continue to afford lots of time and effort in arranging various events, visits and excursions for St David's Hall Friends to enjoy.

One of the most challenging ventures the Friends Committee has ever undertaken is the Venice 2000 trip.

In 1995 the then Chairman of the Friends Committee proposed that a social event or function by arranged to mark the year 2000. After much discussion the committee finally came up with the idea of a trip to Venice aboard the world famous ‘Orient Express', spending a few days exploring the water bound city and then flying home. In March 1998 the first meeting was held to plan for the ‘trip of a lifetime' supported by a number of enthusiastic Friends.

Five years after conception on Thursday 29 June 2000, 188 Friends of St David's Hall boarded the Orient Express from Cardiff Queen Street station for a 4 night stay in Venice, flying back to London and arriving back in London by coach.

The feed-back from the lucky travellers was ‘a resounding success' thanks to the hard work put in by St David's Hall Friends Committee.

The Friends Committee are continually active in providing Friends of the Hall with the opportunity to experience many trips and events throughout the year.

We Nearly Didn't Make 25 Years

A FIRE at a Whitesnake concert almost prevented St David's Hall from ever reaching its 25th anniversary.

A stunt by glam-rockers Whitesnake nearly burnt the stage to the ground about 20 years ago. Technical Manager Richard James recalls, "Whitesnake wanted to do pyrotechnics but we didn't have a license for it so they had to do a demonstration for the fire officer. In the end he said OK. On the actual night they must have trebled the quantity of pyrotechnics. It burnt the stage and all the fire alarms went off, luckily we had put some vinyl over the stage, but that had all melted."

Speaking to the Echo two years ago, The Whitesnake's lead vocalist David Coverdale said the band was kicked out and asked not to return because of their misbehavior. "We ended up singeing the first few rows," he said. "It was like that bit at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy opens the ark - with weird smoke and blue flames everywhere." Whitesnake's stage fire is just one of the events that helped shape the history of St David's Hall.

Many world-class stars have helped create memories of incredible performances as well as behind the scenes gossip. Technical manager Richard remembers an encounter with renowned Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev during a rehearsal. "I fell off the stage and onto a bass player in the pit; Nureyev came over, looked at me and said, ‘It's OK, it's not one of the dancers'."

When it first opened its doors in 1982, 21,000 people visited St David's Hall in just one day. Since then more than 10 million people have attended events there.

The Hall, as it is affectionately known, has come a long way since it was officially opened by the Queen Mother in 1983.

Richard said: "The opening was a big TV event so we were knocking holes in walls to get cables through and cameras up and running. "One of the first concerts after we opened was Hot Chocolate. Instead of having security, we all had to stand in front of the stage to stop people getting through. We were pinned against the stage!"

Over the years the staff have served many stars and even handed out cups of tea to Tom Jones fans sleeping outside overnight waiting for tickets.

These days, most ticket sales are done online and over the phone.

But while some things have changed, other aspects of St David's Hall have remained the same.

Senior house manager Jane Bailey said: "Even after 25 years, I still get that initial excitement of being in the auditorium before a big show. It's always there."

Many of the hall's famous guests hold it in equally high esteem.

Jane said: "When the Manic Street Preachers were here they were reminiscing about how they used to busk outside St David's Hall and how they saw The Alarm here."

Dozens of stars have signed the Hall's guest book - a giant autograph book in which performers have paid tribute to the venue.

Celebrity Quotes

Here are some of the quotes from artistes who have performed at St David's Hall over the past 25 years.

"Some of my fondest memories are performances at St David's Hall, the fondest undoubtedly being the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition which was such an important point in my young career. A perfect Hall for audience and performers alike, it's capabilities boundless from chamber through to solo performances of song to grand performances of oratorio and opera "
Bryn Terfel

"I have so many fond memories of St David's Hall! My first ever tour with Aled Jones, my own headline tours, the festival of remembrance, and of course I received my my honary fellowship from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama there. Happy Birthday St David's and here's to the next 25 years!"
Katherine Jenkins

'I love St David's Hall. One of my first gigs was there in-front of a couple of hundred people in the foyer and the audiences were really great. I've been back a couple of times since to play in the main Hall and Welsh audiences are so much fun to play to. St David's Hall is one of my favourite venues and the staff are really professional and friendly so I'm looking forward to coming back there one day soon.'
Jamie Cullum

‘What an amazing place to sing! Can I take it home please? The only thing that's better than the wonderful acoustic and the extraordinary warmth of the audience is the kindness and helpfulness of the theatre staff'
Lesley Garrett

"I started my professional career there - it's my favourite hall and the only hall in Cardiff! Few people know that I'm the unofficial St David's Hall yo-yo champion, as I was given one by the St David's crew on my debut aged 12 and presented with another one during Cardiff Singer of the World last year, some 25 years later!!".
Aled Jones

‘Happy Birthday. What a great hall and a great city'
Valerie Gergiev

‘What a wonderful hall and lovely people too!'
Nicola Benedetti

‘One of my most favourite acoustics in the world!'
Tasmin Little

‘Great Hall, lovely audience'
Benjamin Grosvenor

‘Happy Birthday St David's Hall. Such a lovely venue'
Joan Collins

‘A wonderful Hall'
Howard Keel 1993

‘Had great fun at St David's Hall, thanks for everything'
Shilpa Shetty 2007

‘I celebrated my 61^st year in St David's Hall, there's no better place'
Christy Moore, 2006

‘What a great pleasure to be at St David's Hall again'
Willard White, 2006

‘A truly lovely gig - Thanks Cardiff and St David's Hall'
Kiki Dee, 2003

‘The sign said that the show ends at 22.00 but it actually ended at 22.35. I blame the people of Cardiff... lovely show'
Dara O'Briain, 2006