I wrote this review in December 2007, and for some reason I never published it.
Today is the 1st anniversary of Mum’s death. She never read this review; like an idiot I never got around to publishing it while she was alive. I did tell her about the gig though.
I’ve not edited this for context or anything, it’s exactly how it was written 18 months ago.
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This review is for Mum. I probably ought to explain why.
Mum’s just coming to the end of her second run of Chemotherapy; it’s the third time her Breast Cancer has come back. I won’t go into specifics, but suffice to say she’s not had a fun time of it over the last couple of years.
Chemotherapy makes her painfully tired, makes her hair fall out, and just flat out makes her poorly. How she’s managed to remain as upbeat as she had throughout it all is beyond me. But, as upbeat as she is, there are some things she just can’t do at the moment.
And one such thing, despite her love for the guy, was to go and see Michael Bublé play at Nottingham Ice Arena on Sunday the 2nd of December. So, this review, it’s for Mum. Now you know.
I bought the tickets off Mum, and took my mother-in-law. She didn’t have a clue who this Bublé guy was, but I thought she might enjoy it. I’d never seen him live either, but I’d been entertained by his appearance on Las Vegas a while back, and I’d heard good things.
The arena was impressively packed; it’s great to see a UK audience get behind an artist like this in the way that they did. But before every great headline act, there has to be a support act. And in this case, they just happened to be great to.
I doubt anyone in the arena had ever heard of Naturally 7, but I suspect they’ll all be telling their friends about them now. Comprised of, unsurprisingly, seven guys, they’re a soul group who imitate the sounds of instruments with their voices. They performed a couple of their own songs, and their version of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”, and a little Simon and Garfunkel medley.
It sounds cheesy, but they’re so charismatic and more than slightly tongue in cheek, and they pull it off. They warmed up the crowd like few support acts I’ve ever seen, and set the tone nicely for the rest of the evening. I recommend having a look at their website if you’d like to know more – http://www.n7house.de/
After a brief interlude, it was time for the main attraction to take that stage. That’s a great word to describe Michael – attraction – because he’s incredibly charismatic, good looking, good moving, and just all round so damned likable.
Within the first few moments of being on stage, he’d hopped down into the audience to have his photo taken with a 9 year old girl, had his ass grabbed by an enthusiastic fan, and confessed that he liked Westlife’s version of Home better than his. Not sure I agree there though…
He moved effortless from old standards like Me and Mrs Jones and Feeling Good, to his own numbers Home, Lost, and Everything, and back to slightly more modern, less old-school tracks like You Are Always On My Mind, and Crazy Little Thing Called Love. It was also nice of him to throw in Let It Snow, despite it only being December 2nd.
It may all be carefully staged and rehearsed, but it’s just such phenomenally good entertainment that I really don’t care. Whether he’s reeling off one of his cute little monologues, or sliding around the stage, Bublé is mesmerizing.
At one point, there’s a fall out with the brass section; Bublé storms off stage because he insists that they got more applause than he did, and the trombone player appears to continue with the gig. After complaining about Michael’s Diva-esque ways he starts to sing the next song, before having his mic snapped back by Bublé. They then proceed to swap roles, with Bublé playing trombone, and the trombone player singing for the next track. It’s not Michael playing, and that’s obvious, but it’s great fun.
I don’t own a Michael Bublé album, but I’ll admit that now I’ve seen him live, I want to. There’s a feel-good quality about his music, and his attitude that’s missing in a lots of artist’s work these days. It’s not surprising that an arena full of people wanted to tap into that, and it’s precisely what they get. Every single person left that arena with a smile on their faces.
And I’ll be seeing Michael again too, count on it. And, next time, I’ll be taking Mum with me.
