Justin Timberlake Justified Tour

...goes by the name of Justin whaaaaa Timberlake and he is a constant cause of much adoration by the Senorita’s in the Orlando household.

Justin Timberlake, or JT for ease of typing, held his last London concert of his Justified world tour on Sunday 11th January before dashing off to Glasgow for the 14th. The later dates on this tour were an extension as he was so popular that thousands of fans were not able to get tickets for the early ...
...but not the same as Justin had on stage as his had a zip-up front and these were pull-over-the-head style. We bought the programme which was only £10. To some, this may seem expensive especially as it only contained photo’s of the man himself, but they were good quality picci’s and I have spent up to £25 on programmes years ago which were full of boring text which I haven’t been interested in reading, so a tenner seemed ok to me.

There ... more

On Saturday, 10th January 2004 we had a Maidstone Mini-meet. My fellow Ciao’ers came and consumed vast quantities of alcohol, while I myself stuck with Shandy throughout the day. The reason for this abstinence was because I had a date on Sunday with a man, young enough to be my son. He goes by the name of Justin whaaaaa Timberlake and he is a constant cause of much adoration by the Senorita’s in the Orlando household.

Justin Timberlake, or JT for ease of typing, held his last London concert of his Justified world tour on Sunday 11th January before dashing off to Glasgow for the 14th. The later dates on this tour were an extension as he was so popular that thousands of fans were not able to get tickets for the early December 03 dates.

We heard about the original London dates being at the beginning of December, but unfortunately were booked to go to Scotland for the particular weekend, although we did wonder if we could have wrangled a concert in, somewhere en route. This was not possible, so my 14 year old daughter was fairly disappointed at missing one of the men of her dreams, especially as her friends were all telling her about their tickets. Then, I heard on the radio (I think in September) that the tour was being extended and tickets going on sale on a Sunday morning after 9am. I asked the girls if they all wanted to go (stupid question) and my son who is a fan too (he declined). We have three phone lines in our house (boring story) so between three of us, we set about the old routine of redial-click, redial-click over and over, until, great joy, I managed to get put through after about one hour.

Our operator was very courteous on the phone, despite my shouting to the other two that I had got through. She asked what price tickets I wanted, and explained where each of the price ranges would be in Earls Court (not the theatre, but the exhibition hall). I plumped for the £45 tickets as it was a special occasion. When she asked how many, I decided to have a ticket myself as I knew that, come the day, I would be jealous of them going off on a jolly and me being left at home with the boy.

So, last Sunday the day came and I drove up to south London, left my car at Herne Hill and we went up the short distance by BR to Victoria and then underground to Earls Court station. Coming out of the tube station, we were faced with the venue with ‘Justin Timberlake’ emblazoned in front of us – we all got far more excited than we should have at this point!

The tickets said that the doors opened at 6pm. They didn’t. We finally got in at 6.30pm and found some stalls selling JT merchandise. T-Shirts (£18), Caps (£20) posters (£2 - £4). There were also some red sweatshirts (can’t remember the price but we think about £40). The red sweatshirts were ok, but not the same as Justin had on stage as his had a zip-up front and these were pull-over-the-head style. We bought the programme which was only £10. To some, this may seem expensive especially as it only contained photo’s of the man himself, but they were good quality picci’s and I have spent up to £25 on programmes years ago which were full of boring text which I haven’t been interested in reading, so a tenner seemed ok to me.

There were various bars for food and drink, including a posh one selling Champagne and Pimms. We went to another stand and just bought expensive Coke £2 and chips £2.50 per portion – outrageous so we shared them.

We got to our seats at 6.45pm and were really pleased with the situation. We were in Block 2 and were on stage left, very close to the action, but not so close as to be too far to the side.

We sat and waited, and waited, and went to the loo and came back and waited. The tickets said it started at 7.30pm but by 8pm we were still waiting for something, anything, to happen. Then, at 8.15, Lemar of Fame Academy came on stage.

Lemar was excellent. He had real stage presence and hit all the right notes. He did not come across as nervous in the slightest considering the huge venue and I was very impressed with him. In fact, I think he has to have been the best supporting artist that I have seen and I go to a wide range of concerts generally and have seen some dire acts in the past. Everyone listened to him and even got to their feet and danced, he really will go far in his music career. This placated the crowd as we were all getting a tad annoyed at making our way there only to sit and wait for so long.

Lemar was on for half an hour, so finished at 8.45pm. The lights went back up, then someone came out and asked for the people sitting on stage right to all jump up and scream and wave as it they were actually watching JT. They duly did, and were told that this was for a photo in a magazine. There was a few minutes when we did a Mexican wave through the whole audience, that was fun. Then we went back to waiting…….

At 9.15pm, the audience were rapturous as backing singers and dancers came on stage and the music started, then…..Justin singing Rock Your Body, dressed all in white with the low slung trousers and t-shirt looking far too sexy for an old dear like me. My only concern at this point was the sound level, and I am not sure it is due to my age, but the base level was really reverberating and felt uncomfortable. This did subside after a while and I forgot all about it. I am usually up for really noisy venues.

Justin did not disappoint in any way. The audience were not all screaming girlies, but were quite a mixed bunch. In the row in front of me were a couple in their thirties, then a young bloke on his own from a performing arts college (could tell by his cap), then a couple of women in their twenties. In the row in front of them was a mixed group in their late teens.

Most of the set list was from the Justified album, which I know well from having it playing in two bedrooms simultaneously in my home and also on TMC on cable. I have got the playlist off the internet because, strangely enough, I didn’t take a note book to the concert! Here are the songs:

Rock Your Body,
Right For Me,
Gone,
Girlfriend,
Senorita,
Still On My Brain,
Nothing Else,
Cry Me A River,
Let’s Take a Break,
Beatbox Interlude (more on that in a moment)
Last Night,
I’m Loving It (McDonalds advert)
Take Me Now,
Take It From Here,
Encore:
Like I love You.

At strategic points during the concert, it was a pyromaniac’s dream as fireworks and jets of fire were set off (being the age that I am I was wondering how they managed to do this without setting light to anyone – it did seem very close!!).

The backing vocals were excellent and so were the dancers, really professional, but then, I suppose young Justin is a very rich man. He started as a child on the Disney Channel (a Mouseketeer? and has managed to make the transition as an adult star too – not many can do that.) He has weathered all the stories about him and Britney Spears, his Disney Co-Star and first love, and has still come out smelling of roses and now in a relationship with the lovely Cameron Diaz.

There were the obligatory screens on either side of the stage and in the centre so that people at the back could see the action, and also his face (and people at the side near the front could swoon over that close up view, too).

Half way through, he did his famous ‘beatbox’ bit. This is why my son likes him, he says he has no shame and just goes for it. In the beatbox bit, Justin makes the sound of a ‘scratch’ record with a DJ. I can’t really describe it, but he has a DJ who has a synthesiser with his voice logged into it. Then, Justin messes about, making the noises of scratching on a vinyl disk and the DJ copies with the synthesiser. While this is happening, Justin is standing on a part of the stage that starts to elevate, generally called ‘the crane’ and he is lifted up round over the top of the audience in the front stalls. He then moves round to the side (ah, where we were – imagine the screaming of my younger two daughters in my ear at this point!) and then back to the other side and lowered back down again. All very exciting.

Justin changed outfits twice during the concert. He started as I said, in the white, then he changed into a little black number with a jacket, then off came the jacket, and then he changed into an outfit which included the red ‘hoody’.

He was on stage for one hour and thirty five minutes. Value for money? Well, we really did enjoy the concert and were impressed with Lemar too, but £45 was a little bit expensive for 1+3/4 hours.

By 10.40pm it was all over and we went back to look at the merchandise and bought some posters, and some more Coke.

And so we went back down the underground and made our way home. It had been an excellent concert and he had performed much better than I had given him credit for, prior to going.

The concert was presented by Mean Fiddler and MTV and was also sponsored by Capital Radio.
There are still some dates left:
Birmingham 18 – 19 Jan
Newcastle 21 – 22 Jan
Manchester 24 – 25 Jan.

Well worth it if you get a chance to go.

Also, Lemar is playing at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London on Wednesday 3rd March 2004 £18.50 0870 143 2210.

Orlando 2004 :)
 

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