This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley at Terras Bilzen, Belguim - 13th August 2005
I'm not really sure at what point that Gema and I decided to go to
Belgium. The Q Music tour had been announced and these were free
gigs and it would have made most sense to go to one of these as there were
ones in Ostend, Brugge and Gent which are a short trip from Calais, but
due to work commitments, it wasn't possible. Shortly afterwards the show in
Bilzen was announced and it was on a Saturday and free, the downside
was that it was on the far side of Belgium near the Dutch border at
Maastricht, 185 miles from Calais. We decided to go anyway.
It was an early start from just outside London, but it all went smoothly, we didn't get lost and arrived in Bilzen mid afternoon. The stage was in the Market Square in the middle of town and we easily found it. There were no posters advertising that Tony would be there, only ones for future events so we were a little worried that he wouldn't turn up. We were relieved to see Phil Taylor and Phil Williams going backstage, we didn't see Tony arrive but at least we knew we were in the right place. We watched the stage being set up from a bar across the square.
Marianne from the Official Site and Els from the Fan Club were there too and we spoke to them.
Just after 7 pm the first act Janse Bagge Bend came on. They seemed to be a fairly good rock band but they had a novelty percussionist, he was very odd and made them into a band that you would enjoy after an evening of heavy drinking!
Round about 8.30 pm, Tony came on and was welcomed warmly by the Belgian crowd and launched into his set.
He sang:
Chant No 1
Only when You Leave
Through The Barricades
Free Fallin'
Walking in Memphis
True
Gold
Tony explained that his Flemish was not very good and that he knew the words for left and right and how to order a beer (he said that was very handy in any language), within 10 minutes of him saying about the beer, one arrived on stage!
Between the songs Tony started chatting to people in the audience, he then scanned the first couple of rows and spotted us, it was a picture to see Tony's surprised and puzzled look on his face and he whispered 'what are you doing here?'
Tony had Phil Taylor on Keyboards, Phil Williams on Bass, a brass section, a drummer, a guitarist and two women backing singers. I think the rest of the band were Belgian locals as they left in locally registered cars. Tony only introduced them as the band, so I have no idea of their names except for the saxophonist who he introduced as Hugo, looking a the pictures on the Q Music website, they seem to be the same people as at those gigs. The band also played for Martin Fry.
Too soon, Tony's part was over with the crowd shouting 'more', 'more' but it was time for Martin Fry to come on stage. He sang some of his ABC songs including 'When Smokey Sings' and 'All Of My Heart', but the surprise of the evening was that Tony came bounding back on to sing two duets with Martin - 'Addicted To Love' and 'Lets Stick Together' and spoke about the UK tour with Martin. The crowd wanted more but it was the end of the set and time to pack away so that Bjorn Again could come on stage. We decided not to watch Bjorn Again, but to watch the backstage area for any signs of Tony, we could hear Bjorn Again and see some of the back of them. We saw Tony watching some of their act from the side of the stage.
Eventually we spoke to Tony as he was leaving, he said he was surprised to see us, but thanked us for coming. We chatted for a little while and he kissed both of us on the cheek.
It was time to leave Bilzen and head back to Calais, we arrived back in the UK at breakfast time, tired but happy. I still had a train journey back to the South West and arrived home at lunchtime.