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Review of Tony Hadley's Xmas Party
21st December 2010
What a way to finish 2010, a gig with Tony. In 2005 we'd had a gig either side of Christmas and that was great. What I hadn't expected was the bad weather in December 2010, I'd hoped that the conditions that I had in Jersey were not duplicated, but I was wrong and snow was on its way again. In the UK we are not used to snow and everything grinds to a halt.
I'd decided as the gig was on a Tuesday it wouldn't be worth going to work on the Monday and then going to London but that it would be nice to spend some time with Wendy over the weekend. During the previous Wednesday night we had snow but after a lovely sunny day on Thursday it mostly disappeared. I was travelling on the Friday evening, but managed to get a couple extra hours off work and made my way at about 3 pm. I packed a shovel, blanket, torch and some food and decided to take the M5 and M4 instead of the A303 that I usually take. As I was going up the M5, around Weston Super Mare the snow decided to fall quite a lot, but once I got to Bristol, the motorway was clear and I made a good run to Berkshire, only once I had turned off the motorway the snow start falling again. I got to Wendy's house and safely indoors the snow started falling and overnight about 3 or 4 inches of snow fell. I was so glad that I had decided to travel on the Friday, although at home the snowfall arrived in the early hours of Monday morning so I was glad I was at Wendy's house and nearer to London and the gig.
As Wendy had to work on the day of the gig, our original plans were to drive to a mainline station and then get trains and tubes to the o2. But as the weather had been so bad, we didn't fancy waiting around on cold station platforms and possibly having trains cancelled on us and I booked parking at the o2. I picked Wendy up fine and we drove into London, although my new sat nav decided that I must be a tourist and took us around Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and past the Tower of London and Tower bridge. We got to the o2 and found that the place was looking quite empty, this was surprising as the KIngs of Leon were supposed to be playing at the o2 arena. I hadn't heard any news all day and didn't know that their show was cancelled due to their tour buses catching fire. The parking attendant asked us which show we had come to see and I was glad that Tony was sitll on as I would have hated to have driven to the o2 and the gig had been cancelled.
We met up with another friend and decided to go for something to eat, in the resturaunt we chose, roadies Chris and Jay were having a meal. As they were leaving we asked them when Tony was on stage and they said 9pm, so we knew we didn't have to rush eating and we weren't worried out who the support act were.
At the last minute, as a surprise for Wendy, I'd got us VIP tickets to make up for her not getting to Jersey. We briefly wnet into the downstairs area and saw Phil Williams and said hi, we saw a couple of minutes of the drag act which was support so I can't comment on it. We then went up to the balcony and had a drink. We didn't realise how the time had gone and it was only when we heard the first bars of Tony singing that we made our way to the seats.
Tony was rocking and did a brilliant set which included Spandau classics and some of his favourites. It was a real high octane set. The band included John Keeble (drums), Phil Taylor (keyboards), Phil Williams (Bass), Richie Barrett (guitar), Dawn Joseph (backing vocals), Lily Gonzales (percussion), Simon Wilescroft (saxaphone), Dan Carpenter (trumpet) and Dave Williamson (trombone). Dawn Joseph decided to wear a red santa suit and I think she was waiting for the encore.
At the encore. Tony brought his daughter on stage (it was her 4th birthday that day) and she sang 'We wish you a Merry Chirstmas' helped along in parts by her dad. She was so sweet and did really well. I thought it would be nice to sing happy birthday to her and started the singing off and thankfully lots of people joined in.
The encore continued with 'Santa Claus is coming to town', then 'All I want for Christmas is You', Dawn Joseph sang the introduction to this brilliantly and then Tony continued. 'I wish it could be Christmas every day' was next and Tony and the band rocked to this. The show ended with 'I Predict a Riot', Tony just loves finishing a show with this song. We met up with friends downstairs afterwards and wished them a very happy Christmas. Thanks to Julia for getting me a set list.
It was then back upstairs for another drink at to meet and greet with Tony. Some of Tony's family had come along to the show and it was nice to see them, we chatted with band members and management along with speaking to Tony and getting a Christmas kiss. It was a great evening, although the fog on the motorway going back to Wendy's wassn't very nice. I went home on the Wednesday to more snow than at Wendy's and then back to work for a couple of days.