This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley -Bridgewater Hall, Manchester
24th November 2008
When this set of four dates was announced, I looked at the locations and the logistics of getting to all four. First up was Manchester, that was easy a quick one hour flight and a train ride into Manchester. So this would be my local one!
I traveled up on the Sunday night, and had a relaxing day around Manchester before meeting up with my friends and heading off to the Bridgewater Hall, a lovely venue with excellent acoustics.
Before the shows I'd had a few discussions with my friends about what we thought the format of the evening would be as some tickets said 'and support' and others said 'and friends', so we weren't really sure what to expect, all we knew was that it was Tony and the rock band and definitely not swing.
The evening kicked off with a 40 minute set from a support band called Kelbie (see their myspace pages here and here), fronted by a man in frilly shirt and a top hat with a sort of Johnny Depp (in Pirates of the Caribbean mode) feel about him. For an up and coming band they were good although I wished I could hear the words to some of the songs more clearly.
The stage was cleared of the equipment of the support band and it was time for the main event - Tony! Accompanied by John Keeble, Phil Taylor, Phil Williams, Richie Barrett, Kate Hector (backing singer) and horny boys Dan Carpenter, Dave Williamson and a new saxophonist Richard.
The show started with 'Life on Mars' and I thought 'oh good', a song I liked from the 'By Request' tour. The set continued as the set list. The first new song was 'Don't Stop Believing' a song by Journey which Tony hasn't sung before and he does a good version of it, although he doesn't think anyone knows it, but I definitely do, but maybe only as one song on a 'driving anthems' CD.
The first surprise of the evening is when Tony and John swap places, John puts on a guitar and comes to the mike and says 'Tony phoned me up in the middle of the night and suggested this!'. He sings 'Sweet Home Alabama' and Tony plays drums (this isn't the first time I have seen Tony play drums, but he makes a good job of it). I'd only seen John sing as part of I Play Rock and but he was really good and it was nice to see him taking centre stage.
The next new song is 'More than a feeling' by Boston, a bit better known song and Tony's version is very good.
The highlight of the evening is the 12 minute long Queen megamix, a superb selection segwayed together.
There was no interval in Tony's set as we had already had an interval between Kelbie and Tony, so after 1 3/4 hours it was time for 'Gold' and the end of the main set, Tony and the band went off to rapturous applause, but not for long and they were back for the encore and everyone was up on their feet for the rocking last three songs, finishing with 'Santa Claus is coming to town'. At the end of the show I collected a set list and noticed some changes, and as others have commented 'Time in a bottle' is listed as 'Time in a brothel'! I later learnt that this was a joke by John which wasn't picked up when the set lists were printed off. I hope Tony enjoyed the joke.
After the show we went round to the stage door or as it is called at the Bridgewater Hall - Artiste Entrance! After a cold wait, chatting to friends, Tony came out (fully clothed, but with flip flops on his feet) and everybody was able to chat to him and have photos taken. It was a superb evening and I loved the choice of songs.