This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley vs Martin Fry and ABC -
Southport -
5th April 2005
by Kev
My second Gig of the tour and another corker, also my cheapest ever Tony Gig as I was lucky enough to win tickets via remembertheeighties.com. I took the opportunity of taking the whole day off work and spending the day at the seaside/seaside pubs! As it had been many years since I had been to Southport, it was nice to see Tony in different surrounding rather than a city centre theatre. My companion for the gig was my better half, who as you may remember from my previous review is not a big Tony fan; although I think I have managed to semi convert her!
The Theatre was at the start of the Pier, which made for a nice setting. I finally got hold of tour DVD before the show started. Highly recommended. As I had won the seats and had to pick them up at the box office I had no idea where I would be sitting, however we were allocated very good row G stalls seats with a perfect view.
Set list for this Gig was slightly changed from Liverpool (although still no drops of Jupiter) Soul love was dropped in favour of She's gone and Martin sang Thunderball. There was also no Delilah from Tony. Martin seemed much more confident at this Gig and his performance was much stronger than earlier in the tour (at Liverpool) he particularly shone on you get what you give a song he clearly enjoys singing.
Tony was as ever the more chatty, and made several comments about going for a cruise during the interval and getting the boat home! He also asked for an audience vote on whether he should sing Musclebound or She loves like Diamond, both got a big cheer but he then launched into Gold instead!
I think Tony's decision to add Memphis to his set was inspired as in my opinion it is the best cover he has ever done. It perfectly shows off his stunning vocal range and the band joining in with the actions makes it hilarious at times. Another great Gig and probably a more polished performance than Liverpool, particularly as Martin produced a much stronger performance vocally. This was the 8th time I have seen Tony either solo or with Peter/ Martin. Vocally he is immense and his quality shines through every time. - Roll on Manchester!
As a quick aside I went to see Go West my second favourite band of the 80's on Friday (8th April) and Tony was one of their special guests to help celebrate their 20 years in the business. He came on looking very casual in jeans and sang Addicted to love, which was a flashback to the tour with Go west last year. He then paid tribute to Peter and Richard opened a bottle of Champagne, poured himself a large glass and left!
A nice moment though and always good to get bonus Hadley*
*Although I'm sure he would of made
the effort anyway Tony was doing a corporate Gig that night in the next-door
building.
Kev