Yesterday was my birthday. The big 25. I've officially moved to the 25-29 bracket. So heres to being grown up ::raises a glass and toasts herself::
As part of my birthday treats, which I am milking to high heaven, I booked for me and my boyfriend to go see Will Young at the Sheffield Hallam FM Arena on the 19th September.
Who is he and why did I want to go?
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Will Young came about in the UK from the popular reality tv programme, Pop Idol in 2002. Week in week out people voted for their favourite singer from a group of 12 men and women. These had been whittled down from around 30'000 auditionees.
From the beginning of the live show stage I loved Will, he stood out because of his velvety toned voice which made my insides go all of a fluster! I was a dedicated Will Fan and voted week in week out, culminating in a Will Party with my friends on the night of the live finale show. It was a close run contest with Will pipping Gareth Gates (remember him?!) to the title of Pop Idol with an astonishing 4.6 million votes cast for him. He quickly brought out his first album and single 'Evergreen' which sold 1,108,659 copies in its first week, becoming one of the UKs best selling debut singles ever.From then on Will has quickly established and distanced himself from the reality side of his career by bringing out 3 albums of great quality music. He is one of the UKs most sucessful male artists and has won a Brit award for Best Breakthrough Act and was recently awarded the prestigious, if somewhat dubious, title of UK's favourite artist 'ever' in a poll conducted by commercial radio in May 2006.
Will 'came out' in the press shortly after winning Pop Idol as gay. This was to pre-empt someone outing him. This information is neither here nor there. It didnt affect his popularity with either males or females in the UK.
Amongst his musical projects Will has also started an acting career, appearing in 'Mrs Henderson Presents' in 2005. He also supports several charities including Womens Aid and Mencap, and does alot of work to raise funds for these.
I wanted to see him as i have adored him for 4 years now. I gaze lovingly at his calendar every day and enjoy listening to his songs over and over and over and urm over. His appeal isnt just down to his looks. Boy, are they some looks. He is funny when interviewed, comes out with some silly yet witty quotes and you could see him being a friend in real life too. Oh and he is gorgeous.
How much were the tickets?
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These were £30 each to buy online/via phoning the arena. Although i managed to get mine for £20 each by bidding on Ebay. A great bargain! Some arenas add a booking fee to cover admin fees which is on average £5 which hikes the price up somewhat.
In comparison to other concerts this is about the average price to pay. Anything from £20 - £40 seems to be the going rate, although i know this is expensive for alot of us, if you are a hardened Will fan its quite hard to resist.
From what i saw at Sheffield there was no ticket touts selling outside the arena. Which was quite disappointing for some reason. Ive never seen a real life ticket tout, harumph.
Parking
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There was heavy traffic around the Arena itself as about 10 thousand people were expected. It cost £5 to park in the Arena Parking itself but luckily i knew somewhere close by to park for free and walked the small distance across.
There was prevalent police dotted around helping traffic along, plus security in the car park making it a safe place to leave your car.
Parking across the road at the shopping complex was strictly forbidden.
Merchandising - Availability & Cost
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Inside there was several merchandising stalls which quickly became very busy and overcrowded.
These sold the following~
Tour brochure - £12
T shirts - Around £22
Shopper bag - £8
Flip and tip pen - £5 Disappointingly these werent available from the merchandising stalls at Sheffield. I was looking forward to buying one as I had seem them advertised. Apparently, there is a photo of Will in suit and once you click he is in his pants. *Swoon*
Car air fresheners - £5
Tea towel - £8
Mobile phone charm - £5
Binoculars - £9
Poster - £5
These are all available to buy online at www.willyoungshop.co.uk. I have seen them popping up on ebay for extortionate prices and feel like screaming get them from the online shop!
The quality of the merchandising was variable. I was going to buy a skinny red t-shirt but asked to look at it and found it flimsy and the print of Will was very faded and looked like once you had washed it, it would disappear forever.
Instead I opted for the Tea Towel! Quite dear at £8 but has a cute design of Will holding a dog on it. Very sweet. I also bought the Tour Programme which i thought was ridiculously priced at £12. I expected alot of information inside but it is jam packed full of photographs of Will, and little to no information inside. There is a set list of songs, two advertisements for his support acts and a thankyou list to the members of his team/management and dancers. Also a pop out dress your own Will game which is mildly amusing! It is of good quality shiny paper though and lasted the night in one piece.
Unless you really desire a memorabilia item I would avoid the stalls selling them. They are overpriced for what they are and of little quality. It seems to be a marketing rip off.
Food/Drink
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There were several stalls selling hot food, sweets, drinks and nibbles dotted around the Arena. The queues were huge and it took about 20 minutes to get served at one point.
All the staff were dressed in uniform and looked hygenic with hair tied back. They were polite and very willing to help, but looked a tad stressed by it all. Who can blame them!
The Alcohol was really expensive. For 1 half of lager it was £1.60. For a super two pinter it was £6.20. The spirit shots started at £3.
Me and the OH opted not to bother buying any and stayed sipping the luke warm bottle of Sprite i had bought from the corner shop previous to going.
We also bought two hotdogs, which seemed to be about a foot long!! These were £3 each which is daft for how much it costs to make them. They were served quickly and efficiently and tasted surprisingly nice. The baguette they were served in was quite dry so lashing of tomato ketchup helped.
For 1 small box of pringles it cost £1, if you really wanted to know this. Which is double what they charge you at a supermarket. Lovely.
Toilets
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This was another slight bug bear about the night. As soon as we arrived my OH needed the loo. We trudged through the queues looking for the male toilets but could only find the female ones.
I eventually lost the plot and asked one of the customer service advisors who was placed at the door letting people in. She advised the toilets were the complete other side of the Arena and they had changed the placing of them due to the number of women expected to arrive. Even she said it was silly and seemed bemused by it. Another 10 minute walk and after queueing for 10 minutes he successfully evacuated his load. Oooer.
On the way out I needed the loo, but decided otherwise due to the mile long queue of agitated women before me. It was a long car trek home on the motorway!
The accessibility of the toilets is good with wheelchairs being able to manouevre through okay. My OH said they were clean and well maintained too. With Loo roll - Hoorah!!!!!!
The Arena and Other mumblings
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I was so hot. Word of warning - Dont wait a knitted jumper dress over jeans when you go to a concert. I was stifled. I honestly though I cant cope in this heat. This lasted about 20 minutes and then the air conditioning must have kicked in, it came almost bearable but I was so pleased to get out into the fresh air when it was over.
The tickets advised the concert started at 7.30pm. The Support acts actually came on at this time for 45 minutes and not Will, which was quite frustrating after we had zoomed down the motorway thinking we were going to be late. Will Came on at 8.45. By this time the OH had already started complaining his feet ached and he didnt have enough room in his chair.
The seating although adequate is quite small and tight so i advise to leave it as long as possible before going to your seats!
The Arena was clearly marked with the blocks and rows of seating. It would be near enough impossible to get lost, but if you did there are customer service assistants outside each door. There is also a railing on the stairs to give you support if you find it hard to get up stairs
We were on Block 203 which was about 3 sets of blocks from the main stage. We had a clear view of the stage but we did get achey necks from having to look towards the left all night. I think buying binoculars is a good idea if you want a clear view of Wills face.
There were two large TV screens either side of the stage which throughout the concert streamed live images of the show onto it, which was a real asset as it did close ups of Will and the dancers.
The main stage was fashioned in the style of a cat walk and was pretty large. At the back was a platform for the band so they were easily visible too.
The Support Acts
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To be honest I had never heard of these before and I have forgot their names now. So after a bit of googling i have found out their names.
Anna Krantz - She was first and had a 20 minute set. She was showcasing work from her debut album 'Precious time with you'. She had a lovely sweet voice and the music was very catchy. Her album was being sold at the merchandising stall for £10 and she plugged this repeatedly! Ha.
Shelley Poole - Former Alicias Attic Singer, she also had a 20 minute slot which i really enjoyed. She played guitar and was brilliant. A heart melting voice and I will look out for her music in the future. Also her CD was available to buy for £10.
I think this is a great showcase for these singers and they seemed to be selling lots of their CDS at the stalls!
The Sound Quality
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Brilliant, absolutely crystal clear. I have no qualms here. It was just loud enough and not fuzzy or distorted at all. You could hear everything!! The speakers were placed directly above the crowd, not too close or too far away and were very powerful. I didnt hear anyone complain about it. Although when I came out my ears were ringing a tad but I dont get out often ::violin plays in the background:: so I think my ears were just adjusting to normality again.
Will and his Set List, Outfits and Performance
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Will was superb. A great live act and sounded just like he does on CD/TV/Radio. He has a very distinctive soulful voice and his influences are that of Jackie Wilson.
The Set List included all the songs from his last album, Keep On. Plus select classics from his previous albums.
They were as follows
Keep On
Think It Over
Very Kind
All I Want
Light My Fire
All Time Love
Aint Such A Bad Place To Be
Love The One Your With
Dont Let Me Be Lonely Tonight
Say I Love You
Who Am I
Out Of My Mind
Stronger
Whats In Goodbye
Fridays Child
Happiness
Leave Right Now
Home
Switch It On
You And I
Your Game
A huge set list I think you will agree! It lasted 2 hours and was action packed and non stop with no interval. There was hugely choreographed parts and the dancers were an intergral part of it.
There were about 5 outfit changes and background changes, with themes ranging from Game Show, Outer Space, Toy Box and Retro.
At one point Will came out in white tight jodphurs, this brought the house down! Sigh, Thats a sight I will never forget again. Apparently in his previous show they had split!
A few times he complained about his mascara running and made a joke about it which was really funny and he told several anecdotes the the audience who were really hooked on every word he said.
Lots of people shouted 'We love you will' and 'Take your clothes off' but he took it all in his stride, partly because he told us he couldnt hear us.
I cried twice. Yes ladies and gentlemen, I couldnt stop it. The tears were flooding out of my eyes when he sung All Time Love as the passion and intensity and the lyrics just gave me goosepimples. Ive even said to my OH if we ever get married, nudge nudge, I want that to be our song. Freakishly he agreed. Plus when he sung Who am I me and the lady sat next to me started bawling. I cant describe how elated and uplifted his voice makes me feel. Its like the voice of an angel. He is brilliant.
My favourite theme was the Game Show which is predominant in the programme i bought. He and his dancers danced around a set where there was a wheel of fortune style background. It was very funny and kitsch and ununsual i thought. They gave out something to the people near the front but I never got to find out what it was. Sigh.
He had 3 background singers who had great soulful voices, they were brilliant in the acoustic version he performed of Fridays Child. You get the feeling there is a great team spirit amongst them and they are loving every minute of being on stage.
The guy on the drums had a solo section where he did a great tribal beat which got all the audience clapping along and had a great reception too. I cannot fault any of their work. Nothing disappointed me, it was all done very smootly and looked like it had been rehearsed many times over.
If anything I thought Will looked a bit tired but this had to be expected, he was racing up to Glasgow that very night. It was also a very energetic set with him writhing around the floor to doing complex routines.
When he went off he said goodbye, but we all chanted for more and he came on and did an encore of Switch It on with a pure white suit on and black aviator glasses. Very sexy!! It was a perfect upbeat way to end the set.
Everyone left happy, if a bit tired by it all!
Other Information
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Directions to Sheffield Arena can be found here
http://www.hallamfmarena.co.uk/about/directions.html
Other Will Young Information can be found here
http://www.will-youngonline.com/home/
Tickets available here
http://www.ticketmaster.com/
Thankyou for reading. I heartily recommend getting tickets to this tour if you can go, It was a great night and a brilliant start to my birthday proceedings!!
copyright cherwaite 2006 x
Will Young - Keep On Live Tour 2006 
great review.Not a fan of will though i'm afraid