What a great musical treat us music lovers had recently. On Friday, 28 August we had the very popular 1970s group Air Supply celebrating their 40th anniversary together and on Saturday, 29 August the much-awaited concert by the extremely popular and talented Italian group Il Volo with both concerts being held at the MFCC Ta' Qali.

On Friday, from what I heard, there was an audience of about 2,000 people and it was held inside. Everything worked like clockwork with the doors opening at exactly 8pm and the show starting at 9pm with a 15-minute break at 10pm and then the last hour with a build-up of their greatest hits like Lost in Love, All Out of Love and many others.

Considering that both Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock are both in their 60s, the great verve and energy they showed on stage just proved that even though they've been going strong for the last 40 years there's no sign of their slowing down.

Accompanied on stage by four young musicians the music was quite loud and we were warned about that but they sing such beautiful ballads that somehow even though loud it doesn't hurt your ears. We all clapped and sang and joined in throughout the show as that's how they wanted it and I don't know how he does it but Russell Hitchcock was still jumping around on stage as if he was still in his 20s. An extrovert, if ever there was one, his exuberance on stage was catching.

On the other hand Graham Russell who I'd say is the quieter part of the duo is extremely talented, writing all of the songs they perform many of which were greatest hits. He was on stage on his own for about 15 minutes in which time he recited a beautiful poem and sang three numbers in his very deep and beautiful voice. He said that he always had a great love for the spoken and written word especially English.

In the second part of the show they both left the stage to mingle with the audience and all those persons with special needs got a hug and a kiss while we were invited to move up to the stage and clap and sing and feel really part of the show. Unfortunately, I could not do that since I have a mobility problem and am always scared that I'll be pushed, not intentionally, and fall over but since we had seats in the 5th row I was still able to clap and sing and feel part of this extremely moving performance.

On Saturday, together with my daughter who is an avid fan of Il Volo at just 19, we arrived at Ta' Qali at 7.15pm and went in after 7.30pm and that's when the problems started. The concert, this time, was held outside with a massive stage and with an audience of around 4,000 again as I was told.

Not one of the ushers seemed to have been briefed where to put people with special needs in wheelchairs and we spent over 20 minutes asking first this person and then that one to tell us where we were going to sit. We both had tickets, mine was free for which I thank the organisers but my daughter had a paid ticket with no number. Finally, someone told us to sit where the silver seats started since those had no numbers and we found ourselves about halfway up with about the same amount of seats in front and behind us. I really would like to say a very big thank you to the tall gentleman with spectacles who really went out of his way to try and find us seats and who kept apologizing when it really wasn't his fault at all.

The show finally started at 9.15pm instead of 9pm and at 9.25pm there were still people coming in and inconveniencing everyone else while finding their seats. This wasn't the only inconvenience during the show as for some reason the bars, which were at the side of the stage, were allowed to serve drinks throughout the whole two-hour, non-stop performance with people leaving their seats continuously to go and buy drinks as if they would die of thirst otherwise. It was extremely distracting and I'm sure extremely rude to this world-renowned and extremely talented group, Il Volo.

I must say that as usual the 34 elements from the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra gave more than their best and these three young men though still in their early 20s gave an excellent show. They laughed and joked and interacted with the audience but unfortunately unlike the previous day there was not the rapport they were expecting though I think they did more than their best to communicate with the audience in both Italian and excellent English with a few Maltese words thrown in for good measure. I think that the blame lies with the organisers since there were no big screens as there usually are when dealing with such a big audience and if we, from halfway up, could barely distinguish between Piero Barone and Gianluca Ginoble, since they are more or less the same height and build, I just hate to think what people behind us all the way to the back area could see or not see.

I was expecting everyone joining in and singing throughout the whole show since they sang plenty of well known songs besides their masterpiece, the very beautiful song Grande Amore but there just wasn't that rapport and I think that they were disappointed and very conscious of it.

As I said before though, they laughed and joked and made fun of each other and it was perfectly obvious that these three young men put a lot of thought, a lot of hard work and effort and many hours of rehearsals to put on such a fantastic show. They showed that not only are they popular as a group but also separately.

Piero, who as he said grew up loving opera as he grew up in a family of opera lovers, gave a beautiful rendition of E Lucivan le Stelle from Tosca to a standing ovation;

Ignazio, a very moving Memories from the musical Cats, and I must admit that that was the very first time I've heard a man sing it and with so much pathos. Finally Gianluca who said that three of his very favourite singers are Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley sang Falling in Love with You in perfect English and with all the feeling required for such a song.

There were of course the very popular Il Mondo, O Sole Mio, Granada, My Way, Unchained Melody and so many others including their greatest hit Grande Amore for which at last everyone was standing and singing with them.

It is a pity that the show wasn't better organised especially as I said before, the lack of big screens made it very difficult for the audience to interact better with the trio.

One last thing that I'd like to point out to the organisers of Il Volo  is about the tickets, since "normal" people could book their tickets from the comfort of their home whereas us, persons with special needs, had to actually go all the way to Ta' Qali to get our tickets when there was such an easy way out. We all have a Special ID card and all that was needed when booking was for us to quote our ID number (as we always do for all the shows organised by NnG Promotions) and then present it together with our printed tickets at the door thus saving us a great deal of inconvenience and hassle

Thank you though both organisers for bringing over two such great groups and may we have many more shows of this calibre.