This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Radio Wales Big Buzz in Swansea on 3rd July 2004
On one of my trawls looking for information about Tony, I was searching the BBC site for old articles and found this event in Swansea. It was a forthcoming event on a Saturday afternoon and one that could be done in a day by train. Decided to put my Family Railcard to use again and take my youngest daughter with me.
There were several other artistes listed as attending including Sam and Mark from Pop Idol, James Fox the Eurovision Entrant, Phixx, Estelle and Matt Goss. The event was running from 2 - 5 pm. Arrived in Swansea at 12.30 pm, just to make sure I didn't miss Tony, turns out that Tony wasn't due to appear on stage until after 4.00 pm and eventually appeared just before 4.30 pm. It was an interesting day watching the rest of the artistes, although I would have been gutted had I been a Matt Goss fan as he was due to catch a helicopter from London and got caught in traffic and didn't turn up.
I'm not sure why the venue was called Castle Square Gardens because the area was all paved with a fountain in the middle (although there may have been grass behind the stage). It had a flat part and tiered steps all around, which made for good seating. The young girls were camped out at the front by the stage, but we decided to sit for most of it and only stood up when Tony came on. Luckily for us, when Tony came on some of the young girls decided it was time to go and we edged our way to the front. Ended up about four rows of people back, right in the middle. Think Tony spotted me.
Tony was singing to a backing track, so there was no band there.
He sang a Spandau Ballet set of:
To Cut a Long Story Short
Lifeline
Only When You Leave
Through The Barricades
True
Gold
Plus the Tom Jones classic
Delilah
Tony mentioned that he had been asked to sing Delilah at the Speedway National Grand Prix at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff a couple of weeks previously and that it was the unofficial Welsh National Anthem and that he had the lyrics all over the stage as he had only sung it once before. He also mentioned that the difference between the weather in Swansea which was a beautiful sunny day and the night before at Haydock where there had been torrential rain. The event was broadcast live on Radio Wales and over the internet.
It was well worth the three hours each way on the train, and that it was a lovely sunny day was a bonus. I wouldn't have minded if it had been raining. I managed to get some lovely photos of Tony. See them here.