This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley - Saffron Walden Carnival - 16th July 2005
When
this gig was announced I had already promised my daughter that I would
take her to see Ronan Keating at Newmarket on 15th July. I couldn't
believe my luck that Saffron Walden and Newmarket were about 20 miles
apart so I would be in the area already. I decided to drive up and consulted several online mapping
sites and they informed me that it would take between 4 and 5 1/2
hours, not too bad I thought. We left home around 11.15 am and
decided to go up the A30/A303. It was a bad sign when we got to the
end of the first bit of dual carriageway just outside Honiton that the
traffic ground to a halt and crawled through the Blackdown Hills. We
had hardly gone very far, but two hours had gone by, so much for getting
there in 4 hours! We decided to go up the M5/M4 and took a detour to
Taunton. The rest of this part of the journey went to plan, although
it was very hot. We got to the M25 at 4 pm, the traffic was really
heavy, about 26 miles and an hour and a half later, the cars' radiator
overheated, luckily we were not far from a junction and we refilled the
radiator and decided to get to our hotel another way. We finally
arrived at our hotel just after 7 pm, almost 8 hours after we had left
home, tired but ready to go and see Ronan in concert. The Ronan
concert was good, but we were rather a long way back.
Saturday dawned and my real reason for being in the area, Tony would be at Saffron Walden Carnival. Arrived in Saffron Walden about 6 pm and immediately joined the then small queue that was waiting by the entrance. They finally let us in about 7.15 pm, we raced to the front and I managed to get to the front, just right of centre, under Tony's microphone (hence some of the angles on the photos!). First up were a band called Vice Versa, fronted by two girls doing cover versions. After a few songs a singer came on wearing black leather and singing Elvis songs, he tried to involve the front row, but we really didn't want to get involved. Next up were Aswad, a reggae band. I didn't recognise the songs except their one hit 'Don't Turn Around'. Reggae is not really my type of music, but as far as I could tell they were good.
Later than expected Tony came on stage with John, Phil T, Phil W, Richie B, Andrea, Dave, Dan and Simon. The set was very similar to Bodmin at the beginning of June, with the addition of 'Under The Bridge'. The lyrics to this were firmly taped to the stage, along with others I couldn't see. The crowd in the marquee were up for a party and the atmosphere was really great, Tony had them eating out of his hand. Tony's duet with Andrea on 'Suspicious Minds' was great and the actions to 'Walking in Memphis' were there again with the audience trying to join in (very badly!). I think there must have been a time to the entertainment licence as he didn't chat very much between the songs and kept looking at his watch, as it was the show ended around 12.15 am.
It was a superb show, I really enjoyed it. Tony mentioned that he could see the regulars on the front row. At the end of the show we went around to the car park entrance to the marquee and after a while Tony came out and spoke to everyone waiting through the window of his car. It seems that the Saffron Walden Carnival was a huge success, making £40,000, £10,000 more than the same event three years previously. It must be part of the increase that they decided to have Tony headlining the last night this time. My journey was so much less eventful on the way back, only two short delays and I made it back in 5 hours - including a 45 minute break. Not sure if I will take my car so far another time.