This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley at Happy Days Festival - East Molesey
29th May 2011
A festival near Wendy's house on the bank holiday sounded like a good idea, what wasn't so great was the date. The end of May can have a bit dodgy weather, so the weather forecast became my favourite website. As the show got closer, the forecast was predicting dry weather, but it would be windy, so time to sort out what to wear and dress for the weather.
After a short drive we were at the festival not long after the gates opened and made our way to the VIP area. I don't really agree with having a separate area at the front which they charge more for, but having experience of this sort of area before, I knew if I was going to get to the front without having to stake out my place all through the other acts, then this would be a necessary purchase.
Being in this area there was a nice set of portable teired seating to the side and it was nice to sit there and chat to friends. The actual show didn't start until about 4 pm, so really we hadn't needed to get there so early. There was a ban on taking your own food and drink into the festival. This made it very difficult for me to find anything to eat as I can't eat wheat, so had to settle for a piece of chicken with cheese and some lettuce and tomato. I thought this was a very expensive £5.00 worth of food and I think they should have made an exception for people with dietary prob, as if I had not bought a vip ticket, my only choice would have been spicy vegetarian food.
The bands for the day were Heatwave, Nik Kershaw, Leee John, Martin Fry and ABC and of course Tony. Each band were given an hour each, this was a little too much for some of the bands who hadn't had many hits as some of the artistes sang tracks from their latest album, B sides and songs nobody had heard of. This didn't help the festival atmosphere and by the time Tony came on at top of the bill, the show was running late. This meant that Tony couldn't chat between the songs as much as he likes, he also kept consulting his watch. There were no surprises with the set, but it was great as usual. After Tony sang 'Gold' he went over to his tour manager who it appears said that he couldn't sing 'I Predict a Riot'. Tony then went over to some people who appeared to be the promoters and after a few words came back to the centre of the stage with his now familiar words - 'It can be scary out there' and launched into 'I Predict a Riot'. It was a great set, if a bit short and it was good to see Tony outdoors without it raining.
We spoke to Tony afterwards and wished him a happy birthday for the following week and gave him some birthday cards.