This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley vs Martin Fry ABC: - Royal Albert Hall, London - 12th April 2005
This was the special one on the tour, the first time that Tony
had played the Royal Albert Hall since his Spandau days. In any interviews
you could see that it was the one he was looking forward to. I booked this
one up as soon as the tickets went on sale. I was looking forward to it
too! I managed to secure second row seats and has luck would have it when
I got there I found that they were right in front of Tony's microphone and there
wasn't anyone sitting in the seat in front of me, so it was almost like front
row! I arrived a little bit late for this one, my train had been
delayed because children were playing on the line and it always takes longer on
the tube than you expect it to.
They were in full flow by the time I got there and the acoustics of the Royal Albert Hall made them sound better than ever. I have never been to the Royal Albert Hall and was impressed by the setting. The place was packed and people had travelled from all over the country to see this excellent show. You could see that Tony was enjoying being there and his voice sounded better than ever, even Martin Fry was on top form too. The stage at the RAH was bigger than most of the ones at other venues that I have seen. Tony told his story about meeting Frank Sinatra at RAH as a teenager, how he had followed him off stage and pointed to the area where he met him and told him that he wanted to be a singer and how Frank Sinatra had wished him luck in his career.
The first half was over too soon and it was time for the break. The second half started with the new duet of 'She's Gone'. It was a much better rendition than I had heard at High Wycombe, Martin Fry sang his parts with confidence, you couldn't tell that it hadn't been a duet from the start of the tour. 'The Reason' and 'Time in a Bottle' were excellent, 'Walking in Memphis' was as hilarious as ever, the boys and their actions are great. When everyone started standing when the Martin Fry songs started in the second half the whole of the second row vacated their seats and went to the front of the stage, now my great seat wasn't so great after all. There was no way I could now get past everyone at the end row and get to the front, so I climbed over the front row seats and went to the front!
It was great to dance at the front, but too soon it was over. Met up with friends and chatted until we were thrown out of the auditorium. On my way up the stairs I passed Tony's mum going to the private after show party. Went round to the stage door, but Tony didn't come out as he had a family party. Spoke to Phil Taylor. I would have waited until Tony came out but it was getting cold and my friend wanted to go back to the hotel. Managed to get a tube back to our hotel - The Travelodge Royal Scot. Our room was overlooking Percy Circus and Tony's childhood home.