This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley - Swindon - 6th July 2003
It may seem strange me writing a review almost 5 years after the event happenned, but this really is the start of my journey with Mr Hadley. I'd been a fan of Tony's since I was 19 years old and bought the first Spandau single 'To Cut a Long Story Short'. I'd followed his career, but never been to see him live, probably due to the fact of living in Devon and getting married and having a family. In 2003 my oldest daughter was 16 and had taken me to see Ronan Keating a few times, I enjoyed his shows but started to think 'What's in this for me?'. Apart from some mother-daughter bonding time - nothing! I'd bought Tony's 1997 solo album, but apart from seeing him on 'Down to Earth', 'Reborn in the USA' and on occasional interviews on daytime TV, I didn't really know what he was up to.
Glancing through the gig listings in the Sunday paper I noticed that Tony was on tour and looked at the venues. Salisbury, Swindon mmmmm, nothing any further south west. What I didn't know was that he had already played Barnstaple and Truro before he went off to America to do Reborn. My local paper is rubbish at telling you what is going on, especially if it is happening 40 miles away!
I ruled out going to Salisbury, although only about 100 miles, at that point I didn't drive that far. I could get a train to Swindon and return the same day. Swindon it would be. I booked the tickets. When it came to booking the train tickets, I found that my train had turned into a bus and it wouldn't arrive home unitl the early hours. Money was a bit tight as I was only working part time at this point, but instead of catching this bus home, I booked my first hotel on the internet.
The gig was on a Sunday night, we arrived in Swindon and found the hotel, we also found that Swindon was closed. We managed to eat at MacDonalds just before it shut around 6 pm and went to find some chocolate for my daughter. We drew a blank on the chocolate and she was too young to take into a pub.
We then made our way to the Wyvern Theatre and to our seats in row M. The view is good from almost anywhere in this theatre but I'd never sit that far back these days.
The 2003 tour was Acoustic in the first half and rockier in the second half. I was so impressed by Tony's singing and was disappointed when the gig finished. All these years on I'm not sure what he sang but have a feeling that several songs on the True Ballads Album plus 'Sunny Day' made it onto the set list.
It was reasonably early when the gig finished and because we didn't have to rush off to get the train, I decided that we would go around to the stage door to meet Tony. After an age of waiting (not sure how long it was, but being July it wasn't too cold) Tony came out of the stage door. We'd got talking to some other people at the stage door - one of which I now know to have been Wendy. There was one other pair of women in front of us and the regulars said 'go on - you can go before us'. I met Tony for the first time. He was wearing a blue denim shirt and jeans. I talked complete rubbish to him, but he was so lovely and patient and listened, he signed my ticket and flyer and I had my photo taken with him. When I look at that first photo I am so starstruck. I had been so impressed with his singing and now I had met him!
I was sorry that I had waited to the end of this tour and had missed a couple of other gigs that I could have gone to. I could hardly sleep that night, I'd had such a great time and couldn't wait until I could go again.
Denise 11/4/08