Boyzone @ LG Arena, 2nd March 2011‏

Scheherazed Lun 21 Mar - 13:31

Boyzone thriller – concert review, LG Arena
Thursday 3rd March 2011, 11:30AM GMT

Boyzone, LG Arena, Birmingham
Thousands of screaming women in one place can only mean one thing: Boy band mania, in particular Boyzone.
Their latest Brother tour stopped off at the LG Arena in Birmingham last night and is the first since the untimely death of Stephen Gately in 2009.
The band opened the show with new track Too Late for Hallelujah with the boys rising through the stage on hydraulic platforms. “Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham went on to share their reservations about carrying on without Stephen.
But judging by the fans’ reaction to their grand entrance it was the right decision.
All the old favourites Picture of You and Love Me For A Reason, No Matter What and When the Going Gets Tough all got the crowd on their feet singing along. The striking backing dancers, who appeared on stage throughout the show, gave it a stylish edge.
They also belted out a few songs from the Brother album such as Til The Sun Goes Down and Ruby, which is sure to be a hit.
During the show the atmosphere went from high to low and the hysteria died down as a five-minute documentary paying tribute to Stephen was shown on big screens around the arena.
The four band members flashed up reminiscing on hearing the news of Stephen’s death.
Wiping away the tears fans sang along to a powerful perfomance of Gave It All Away.
The foursome found time to squeeze in a couple of Ronan’s solo songs Lovin’ Each Day and the encore, Life is a Rollercoaster, was a fitting end to the gig and proved to me and all the fans that we do still love them for a reason.
By Lisa Broom

Scheherazed Lun 21 Mar - 13:32

Review - Betty Hagglund

Well, the Boyz are getting older, and so are their fans. The LG Arena was nearly full, very few men, lots of women in their 30s and 40s. Tonight’s gig was part of Boyzone’s Brother tour, their first UK tour since the death of Stephen Gateley in Majorca in 2009. His presence ran through the evening as the group reminisced about him, talked of their grief, and repeatedly thanked the crowd for welcoming them back as a foursome.
Boyzone were supported by two acts, Guy Sebastian and Wonderland. Despite a string of albums and number 1 singles in his native Australia, Australian Pop Idol Sebastian left me decidedly underwhelmed.
Accompanied by a very competent session musician called Jimmy (’We only met today’, confided Guy to the audience), the singer-songwriter’s material failed to grab the audience. I found my mind wandering during his set, my companion was looking around and texting her boyfriend and the girls behind us ignored him almost completely. He has a pleasant enough voice and a competent guitar style but the lyrics were cliched and the rhymes clunky. The first three songs — ‘All to Myself’, ‘Like It Like That’ and ‘Bring Yourself’ passed by with little notice. ‘The Art of Love’ which he has released as a duet with Jordin Sparks was better — more melodic– and the final song, ‘Who’s That Girl?’, one of his Australian hits, was probably the strongest, with a bit of a 50s/60s feel to it, interspersed with rap — but scripted and rather polite rap, not improvised or confrontational.
A smattering of applause, Guy Sebastian left the stage and the screens on either side started showing a Wonderland video; halfway through, Wonderland walked onto the stage. The Anglo-Irish girl band’s first album is due out this May. Put together and managed by Louis Walsh who manages Boyzone, one of the girls is married to Kian Egan from Westlife, so there was a certain incestuous feel to their choice as Boyzone support — looking at their coming tour dates they’re currently supporting both bands.
They struck me as a smooth ensemble, with vocal lead passing from woman to woman as they sang and some good harmonies. Smooth but inexperienced — their attempts to to engage the audience were pretty unsuccessful and they repeatedly tried to persuade the audience to sing along and to stand up and dance along with them. Personally I think they’d do better just to perform the songs and to wait until they’re popular enough for audiences to want to stand up — watching them failing to get people to respond just made me feel rather sorry for them. The set did definitely improve as it went on, and by the end of the fifth song (’Starlight’, ‘Nothing Moves Me’, ‘Need You Now’, ‘The Only Girl in the World’, ‘Not a Love Song’), the audience was beginning to engage — but the girls need to learn to let it happen spontaneously rather than trying to push it.
We were then rather bizarrely shown a set of advertisements for male underwear, a media company, computer games and a London-based car customising firm. Slightly surreal…..
By the time the Boyz were due to come on, the empty seats in the stadium had filled up. The video crew turned the cameras on the audience, who responded and waved and danced as they saw themselves on the big screens — a shrewd way to raise the level of involvement, I thought. The room went dark, the audience started to scream and stamp their feet, the curtains opened and the band rose into the air on hydraulic platforms, singing one of their new songs, ‘Too Late for Hallelujah’. By the time the band descended slowly to the stage the audience were on their feet and the evening felt like it had finally begun.
Boyzone are consummate showmen. The production was slick, the performances consistently excellent — those of the group, the backing band and the dancers who accompanied each song — and they know how to work an audience. There was a constant change of tempo and scene; each song accompanied by video backdrops (often amusing) and dancers in a variety of increasingly outrageous outfits. The group seemed to be enjoying themselves with lots of interplay between members as they sang.
After around half a dozen songs the mood changed and a five-minute video documentary showing interviews with the group members about Stephen Gateley’s death was shown, followed by a time of reminiscing. Fans, clearly moved, sang along to ‘Gave It All Away’ while footage of Gateley was shown at the back of the stage.

Anecdotes about Steo peppered the rest of the set, some melancholy, some amusing. The only false note of the evening came from a rather contrived routine about who would sing Steo’s high part on ‘No Matter What’ — too predictable, too faked. But the inclusion of Joan Garland to carry the top line was a good idea and the song worked well.
Throughout the evening there was a mixture of old favourites and newly-penned songs, with the newer material generally receiving a more enthusiastic response than the old (although both had the crowd on their feet dancing and singing). At times with the older material the absence of Gateley was clear — the missing top line was noticeable, although the group carried the songs off well despite this.
The final song of the set, ‘Let Your Wall Fall Down’ was powerful, with strong harmonies and high volume drum and guitars and pictures of white doves flying across the back screens. A quick thank you to the dancers and the backing band, and the group sank into the stage.

There was then a long wait — the crowd were not very noisy and there was applause but not in a sustained way. Eventually the lights came up and focused on a stage in the midst of the crowd — one of the group began to sing and was then joined by the other three who ran through the audience (in a carefully managed way — I found myself reflecting that it was another sign of both performers and audience getting older — in Boyzone’s early days, I doubt they could have pulled that one off without getting mobbed!). Three encores including a strong rendition of ‘Sorry’ and finally ‘Life is a Rollercoaster’, and a final thank you to the crowd for welcoming them back and ‘making us feel that there is a future’.
Set List:
Too Late for Hallelujah
Hurricane
Picture of You
All that I Need
Ruby
Going Gets Tough
Gave It All Away
Better
One More Song
Till the Sun Goes Down
Love Me for a Reason
No Matter What
You Needed Me
Love You Anyway
Loving Each Day
Let Your Wall Fall Down
Encores:
????
Sorry
Life Is a Rollercoaster