This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley at Silverstone Race Track
9th July 2011
A show at the Formula 1 Grand Prix, that sounded interesting. My husband loves watching the Grand Prix on televison, so I was sure he would like to go. We booked a weekend ticket and arrived on the Friday just before a heavy downpour. After the nice weather the previous weekend in Leicester, untortunately this rain would be the theme of this weekend. I'd booked us into a hotel in Milton Keynes and only when we got there, found out that there was a JLS and Olly Muirs concert in the football stadium next door and the place was crawling with heavy security and lots of mums with pre-teen daughters. We didn't need to buy tickets to the gig as we could hear it quite loudly in the hotel room! Thankfully it finished at 10 pm and we could get some sleep, ready for the next day at the racetrack.
After breakfast we made our way to Silverstone for the Formula 1 practice and qualifying, having already checked out where the stage would be the day before, we decided to locate ourselves by the racetrack in the vicinity of the stage. The stage also had a big screen on it, so we could keep up with placings in the qualifying sessions. Jeff Brazier was on stage between the action on the track and was holding competitions to win F1 goodies. Behind him I could see John's drumkit, so I was sure I would be able to see the soundcheck too. After qualifying, we moved our picnic chairs nearer the stage, to make sure we were well positioned for what I was there to see. I saw band members come on stage so I thought 'time for soundcheck', this was the moment the heavens opened and rain began to pour down. We huddled under umbrellas and listened to the sound check (minus Tony but including John).
Thankfully the rain eased off and eventually stopped, time for more Jeff Brazier and a talet competition. It was soon time for the late afternoon/early evening entertainment to begin. Brit Floyd, a Pink Floyd tribute act were on first, their set was about an hour and showed videos that had accompanied the original songs on the big screen behind them. The stage was cleared of their equipment and next up was Shockolady an eastern European woman, thankfully she could sing. The third act were Vanquish, a four piece girl group in the theme of 'The Saturdays', they were quite good, singing original songs and promoting their next single. Like Shockolady they were a bit of eye candy for the mainly male audience.
The stage was soon set up and John, Phil, Phil, Richie, Dawn and Lily took their places on stage and Tony came on for the first song in the set 'Life on Mars'. I don't think this was what the audience was expecting from Tony, especially when he launched into 'Somebody Told Me' straight after. Tony was his usual chatty self and explained that it would be difficult singing love songs to a bunch of blokes, but he was going to do so anyway. You could see that Tony had the audience eating out of his hand. Between the songs a group of rather drunk men kept singing 'Gold' but they were quietened when Tony launched into another great song. The set was a couple of songs longer than usual and included 'With or Without You', but was over way too quickly for my liking. Of course the audience loved 'Gold' and sang along with gusto. The rain had kept off for the whole show and I was glad about that.
The next day we were back at Silverstone for the main Formula 1 race and we got caught in a heavy downpour 30 minutes before the race. We had gone back to the same spot as the day before , this was probably a mistake as not all parts of the track got this rain. It was an enjoyable weekend away with both my husband and I seeing something we enjoy.
Denise