This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley at Exeter Racecourse Ladies Night
3rd May 2011
It was quite short notice that I found out that Tony was coming to me! So just seven weeks to wait until Tony would be less than 10 miles from my house. I was so excited. I'd missed Tony in 1999 when he came to my town last and it was 2005 when he came to Torquay. It is quite unusual for me to be able to see Tony withiout travelling quite long distances. My work colleague also decided that she would organise a group to see the concert too.
The weather over the late Easter had been quite good, so I was hoping it would continue for this show, watching the weather forecast became my favourite hobby, but thankfully there was no rain on the way, but it was a bit windy. Exeter Racecourse is on top of a huge hill on the main A38 Exeter to Plymouth road, so I decided to dress for warmth and not to enter the best dressed ladies competition, this was a good idea as there was definitely a chilly wind about. It made a change for Wendy to come to me, instead of me to go to her and I picked her up from the station mid afternoon. We got dropped off at the racecourse armed with betting tips from my hubby's friend. The betting tips were pretty good and we ended up in profit by £2.60 at the end of the racing.
When I got to work on Thursday, I got a bit of ribbing about the speed that I got to the front to see Tony sing, they said that maybe they should have bet on me! We were waiting for the gate to open to make a dash across the racetrack. It was my local show, I wanted to be front middle.
The band were on stage pretty soon after the audience were allowed across the racecourse and there weren't any surprises with the set list. I'm not sure why Tony had told me in Holland that the band would have to do some rehearsals for this show as all the songs were very familiar. The band consisted of John Keeble (Drums), Phil Taylor (Keyboard), Phil Williams (Bass), Richie Barrett (Guitar), Lily Gonzales (Percussion), Dawn Joseph (Backing Vocals).
The show started with 'Life on Mars' and continued with the high octane 'Somebody told me'. The rest went as the set list. I'm not sure why there are pen marks around True and Barricades as I'm sure they were sung that way round and I'm not sure whose set list this was.
Tony didn't bother going off for the encore, he just asked the audience to give him a cheer and continued on with 'Lets sitck together' and 'I Predict a riot. It had not been a warm evening at all, I was glad that I had dressed warmly. You could see Tony's breath as he was singing. A number of people waited by the stage to see if they could meet Tony, but were told by the security guards that he had already gone back to his hotel and they decided to go home. We knew this wasn't true as his car was still parked there. This was probably a good idea that they went as Tony had a bad cough that he had been struggling a bit with during the show and he didn't want to be hanging about in the cold. We spoke to Tony before he went and then spoke to the band. They said that their hands had become very cold whilst they were playing and that they had played some wrong notes. We assured them that it had sounded fine, but as professional musicians they always strive for perfection.
I had a great time, it confused me a little being able to go home after a show, but it was nice being able to see Tony close to home.
There was a large poster outside the racecourse similar to the flyer and I wish I had asked the racecourse if I could keep it, but thought better of it as I don't know where I would have put it.
Denise 7/5/11