This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Tony Hadley vs Martin Fry ABC Tour - Februrary - May 2005
I thought I would share with your my thoughts about the tour, now that it is over. I have to admit that I saw the show 17 times (18 if you count the CD and DVD recording at Milton Keynes) and noticed changes as it went on. I went to:
| Date | Venue |  |
| 1st February | Oxford | |
| 6th February | Weston-Super-Mare (2nd show) | |
| 11th February | Bournemouth | |
| 20th February | Bath (2 shows) | |
| 26th February | Wolverhampton (2 shows) | |
| 6th March | Portsmouth | |
| 13th March | Chatham (2nd show) | |
| 24th March | Torquay | |
| 3rd April | High Wycombe (1st show) | |
| 12th April | Royal Albert Hall | |
| 17th April | Birmingham | |
| 19th April | Grimsby | |
| 29th April | Salisbury | |
| 6th May | Southampton |
Most of the shows that I went to were at the weekend and as I only work Monday - Friday, this was great for me. It worked out that I did about one a week with only Oxford, Royal Albert Hall and Grimsby during the week.
There were definite differences in the venues, Bournemouth and Portsmouth had the liveliest audiences with the them standing right from the start. Southampton was marred by being asked to sit down during the first half and Weston-Super-Mare they didn't want any photos taken - that didn't stop me, I just took them without the flash. The theatres themselves ranged from Victorian ones with boxes that Tony said should have the Muppets in to modern theatres built since the 1960's. It also depended which theatre you were at, how close the equipment was to the front of the stage. I think that Salisbury was the closest to the edge of the stage and Oxford one of the furthest back.
I'm not sure that having two shows in a day is a good idea, it is a heavy workload on their voices, they sing less songs and the early audience doesn't seem to have much life in them. My advice to Tony would be don't do it!
The set up of Tony's band - John Keeble, Phil Taylor, Phil Williams and Richie Barrett was joined by Matt Backer who has played for Martin Fry for a few years and the Go West drummer Richard Brooks (when Richard was on tour with Go West Tim Bye took his place), but the brilliant idea of getting the 'Horny Boys' Simon Wilescroft, Graeme Flowers (who later was replaced by Dan) and Dave Williamson was inspired - they brought a different dimension to the songs and were a great bunch of lads too.
The set list changed over time but not dramatically. I was disappointed that Drops of Jupiter went from the set early on, but it does have lots of lyrics and we all know what Tony is like with lyrics! I liked the song that Martin wrote - The Very First Time, but it did wear a bit thin him saying that he wrote it yesterday, seeing that I knew the words! Soul Love was dropped in favour of making She's Gone a duet, I liked Soul Love so would have preferred that it was kept in. The best song that was introduced was Walking In Memphis, the actions from the 'Horny Boys' were classic and really funny, I can't listen to that song now without imagining them doing the actions.
All in all, I really enjoyed the tour. Tony made my birthday special by wishing me a Happy Birthday during 'Gold' and meeting up with friends at the gigs was good too.
Roll on the summer gigs and hopefully a 25th Anniversary Tour next year.
Denise