This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley - Jazz Café, London - 15th May 2005
This was a bonus show, the tour has ended and everyone is
feeling a bit sad that there won't be any Tony until the gigs in June. I
had heard that the tickets for the Weymouth Festival had gone on sale through
See Tickets and I went on their website and put 'Tony Hadley' into the search
and instead of what I was looking for, this one popped up. It said that
standing tickets were sold out but ones with a meal in the Jazz Café could be
bought by phone. At first I didn't really consider going as I was booked
on a flight at 10 am the next day to Ireland to see Tony at the Blossom Hill
Catwalks and spend a couple of days in Dublin, but as good friends were going, I
decided to go.
The show was raising money for St Michaels school, one that Tony's children had attended and the reason why it had said that the standing tickets were sold out was that they were being sold through the school, and a week before the show it was advertised on the official site and fans could buy the standing tickets. We decided to keep with the tickets we had and it was a nice meal and we were able to go downstairs anyway to stand at the front.
The Fabba Girls were on first, they are a duo that sing Abba songs and sang about 8 songs to a backing track. They also sing with the SAS Band.
Tony came on stage about 10 pm along with John Keeble, Phil Taylor, Phil Williams, Ritchie Barrett, Andrea Grant (it was nice to see her back) and the 'Horny Boys' Simon, Dave and Dan. The stage was quite small for all these people but it was great to be in such a small venue.
It was a set of 15 songs (as on the set list shown right - all in Tony's handwriting) starting with To Cut a Long Story Short. It was nice to see Tony's duet with Andrea of Suspicious Minds back. It was strange to hear Let's Stick Together without Martin Fry and Matt Backer's harmonica, but as usual Tony gave his all even though it was really hot.
It was nice to see Tony again, but in hindsight, I probably shouldn't have gone as it was after sunrise that I arrived home, but managed to get to the airport in plenty of time for the flight.
Denise