Yesterday I went to see Shayne Ward at Wembley Arena, with a friend from work, and her sister in law. Carol finished work at 4pm, I finished at 4:30pm, ran upstairs to change, back down to meet Carol and Nessa, and round to the station to park and catch the train. We got the 4:51 train to Victoria, then had to get the Tube to Wembley Park, via Green Park. This was a learning experience for me, as I'm going back to Wembley in May with two friends, to see Bryan Adams, and hadn't been before, but I now know which trains to get and where I'm going! (Hence I can look organised and experienced in a couple of months time - hee hee!)
As we approached Wembley Park station, I could see the huge arch of the new Wembley Stadium, so when we got off the train and out of the station, we all stopped to take pics of the stadium and the exterior of Wembley Arena too. It's pretty cool, with illuminated fountains set to music, and lots of various types of lighting effects. I was impressed, but I'm easily pleased :)
We made our way into the arena, through bag search (had a hairy moment when the guy did a double take at my bag - think the size of my camera made him think it was a professional type one, when it's just a bulky SLR *style* camera) and along the corridor to block N12, where we showed our tickets again and were shown to our seats. Uh-oh ... we were on the side seats, so had to look to the right to see the stage, and on our right were a young mum with two pre-teen daughters, all armed with banners. Not good.
Carol and I left to get programmes and use the loos, then went back to our seats, and sat through the support acts. There were three - Cushh, a boy/girl two piece act, who only did two songs, and that was two too many, then Dycce, a 6 or 7 piece boyband, who were OK but not my styl, and lastly, Roxanne, who was supporting Westlife when we saw them last year. She's a great singer, but after two support acts already, all we wanted was to see the main attraction!
Eventually Shayne came on stage at 9pm. I'd always liked his music, it's very much my style, and he's nt bad to look at either, but last night I was simply stunned by the talent the boy has! For someone who has only been famous for 18 months or so, less, I think, he certainly knows how to work the crowd, and stopped singing no less than three times to thank the crowd for putting him where he is now, and to say how much he loves and appreciates his fans. I seem to say that about all the bands or artists I see, but it's true - I must be drawn to people who retain a genuine appreciation for their fans!
Shayne sang a great mix of his own songs, and some covers, all of which were well picked, though I don't actually think there's a song he couldn't do justice to. While I can't *sing* myself, I am blessed with a good ear for music, and he was flawless on every single note last night, which meant that songs such as Luther Vandross's "Never Too Much", George Michael's "Fast Love", The Darkness's "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" and Prince's "Kiss", "1999" and a *stunning* version of "Purple Rain" were not only sung well, but in my opinion, *as* well as the original singers did them.
Shayne ended with "No Promises", "That's My Goal" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", which is the one song by him that has always sent chills down my spine, and did so even more live. All in all, it was only an hour and 20 minutes long, but the concert was well worth travelling to see, and I'm not ashamed to say that where I would have said I liked Shayne before yesterday, I would definitely class myself as a fan now.
I definitely could have done without the banners from the people in the seats beside me being waved around so much though, as I couldn't see much a lot of the time, and managed to get hardly any decent pics or video clips. I'm pretty confident that Shayne will be around for a good long while though, and look forward to his fans growing up over the next few years, so there may be fewer of the 12 years olds with pink fluffy flashing ears, banners and whistles at future concerts!
Some pics ...
As we approached Wembley Park station, I could see the huge arch of the new Wembley Stadium, so when we got off the train and out of the station, we all stopped to take pics of the stadium and the exterior of Wembley Arena too. It's pretty cool, with illuminated fountains set to music, and lots of various types of lighting effects. I was impressed, but I'm easily pleased :)
We made our way into the arena, through bag search (had a hairy moment when the guy did a double take at my bag - think the size of my camera made him think it was a professional type one, when it's just a bulky SLR *style* camera) and along the corridor to block N12, where we showed our tickets again and were shown to our seats. Uh-oh ... we were on the side seats, so had to look to the right to see the stage, and on our right were a young mum with two pre-teen daughters, all armed with banners. Not good.
Carol and I left to get programmes and use the loos, then went back to our seats, and sat through the support acts. There were three - Cushh, a boy/girl two piece act, who only did two songs, and that was two too many, then Dycce, a 6 or 7 piece boyband, who were OK but not my styl, and lastly, Roxanne, who was supporting Westlife when we saw them last year. She's a great singer, but after two support acts already, all we wanted was to see the main attraction!
Eventually Shayne came on stage at 9pm. I'd always liked his music, it's very much my style, and he's nt bad to look at either, but last night I was simply stunned by the talent the boy has! For someone who has only been famous for 18 months or so, less, I think, he certainly knows how to work the crowd, and stopped singing no less than three times to thank the crowd for putting him where he is now, and to say how much he loves and appreciates his fans. I seem to say that about all the bands or artists I see, but it's true - I must be drawn to people who retain a genuine appreciation for their fans!
Shayne sang a great mix of his own songs, and some covers, all of which were well picked, though I don't actually think there's a song he couldn't do justice to. While I can't *sing* myself, I am blessed with a good ear for music, and he was flawless on every single note last night, which meant that songs such as Luther Vandross's "Never Too Much", George Michael's "Fast Love", The Darkness's "I Believe In A Thing Called Love" and Prince's "Kiss", "1999" and a *stunning* version of "Purple Rain" were not only sung well, but in my opinion, *as* well as the original singers did them.
Shayne ended with "No Promises", "That's My Goal" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", which is the one song by him that has always sent chills down my spine, and did so even more live. All in all, it was only an hour and 20 minutes long, but the concert was well worth travelling to see, and I'm not ashamed to say that where I would have said I liked Shayne before yesterday, I would definitely class myself as a fan now.
I definitely could have done without the banners from the people in the seats beside me being waved around so much though, as I couldn't see much a lot of the time, and managed to get hardly any decent pics or video clips. I'm pretty confident that Shayne will be around for a good long while though, and look forward to his fans growing up over the next few years, so there may be fewer of the 12 years olds with pink fluffy flashing ears, banners and whistles at future concerts!
Some pics ...
2 comments:
As always your photos are fantastic!! He does have pretty eyes, even if his hair leaves a lot to be desired!! lol!
Thanks hun! They're not so good when you view the full size versions, but they look good at smaller sizes! And yes, I think it's all about his eyes ... the hair could do with being a bit longer! LOL
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