Blue: A Review

The gig was a sell out, clear to anyone who saw the huge queue, which passed the Congregation Hall and almost reached Britten House. This meant fans were left waiting in the rain, but the show was definitely worth the wait.

There was a buzz in the LCR as people walked in and found places, but it was also strangely relaxed, with many people (mainly the mums in the audience) choosing to stand round the sides, so it wasn’t too hard for fans to get close to the front.

The band’s start-up act was up-and-coming star Loick Eissen, best-known for his single “How We Roll”, who gave an incredible performance, despite being unknown to the majority of the audience, made up of girls in their late teens, mums, and the odd boyfriend who had been dragged along. Despite his outstanding vocals, it was Loick’s charisma and energy on stage that really got the crowd going – by the end of his set he had the whole audience dancing and singing along to his songs, and really built up the momentum on the wait for Blue.

Dramatic remixes of Blue’s classics were played in the lead-up to their appearance, which got the audience more and more excited to see their childhood crushes appear on the stage in front of them. When they finally ran onto the stage to screaming, they performed a hit from their new ablum “Roulette”, called “We’ve Got Tonight”. Despite most of the audience not seeming to know their new tracks so well, they were still able to enjoy them as they were incredibly catchy, and as the band members showed off their classic noughties boyband moves, the audience just couldn’t help dancing along.

They mixed in some of their old classics with their new tracks, and as expected the audience reacted well to their well-known tracks. They played “One Love”, “Fly By”, “Bubblin’”, “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word” and “Can’t Breathe Easy”, finishing with an encore of “All Rise”. The band interacted with the audience throughout the entire show, waving, blowing kisses and talking to them, and Anthony even recognised one hardcore fan who was left very excited. This really built up a great relationship between the band and their fans, and made the show that bit more special.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, They were ours.

A few of the more dedicated fans waited around outside the venue at the end to meet the band. Although it took a while, the band members eventually appeared one by one, taking their time to talk to the fans, signing tickets and programmes, and having pictures with them. The chilled-out atmosphere was really striking: the band members were walking around among the fans, without security following them around like they usually do – Duncan even moved the barrier and casually walked past members to the other bus and back again! This was really different to other gigs, in which the artists swiftly make their way through the crowd, take the odd photo and are urged on by their security. It was nice to see the band take their time to talk to their fans – it felt like they were there because they wanted to be, and were generally interested in talking to and meeting their fans.