November 14, 201113 yr Review: Will Young, Newcastle City Hall by Gordon Barr, Evening ChronicleNov 14 2011 IT’S fast approaching 10 years since Will Young became the nation’s first reality TV Pop Idol. These days with X Factor overload it’s hard to remember just what a big deal Pop Idol was - no voice tuners, no great theatrical set pieces. It was all about the voice - the real voice. It’s a voice that has seen Will remain at the top for a decade, making him perhaps the most successful of UK reality TV talent shows winners (followed by Leona and Girls Aloud). Two weeks ago I watched Britney mime her way through, undoubtedly, a spectacular set. But give me live vocals and Will Young above Britney any day. There was humour, much banter with the sell-out crowd, and incredibly spine-tingling moments. A rendition of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill during the encore I’m sure resulted in Will barely holding it together. There was no lavish set, but a black door in the centre of the stage through which the band, backing singers and then Will entered and left the show. We were treated to many tracks off his latest, more upbeat than usual, album, Echoes, including current single Come On, lead-off single Jealousy and the likes of Silent Valentine and Hearts on Fire. The oldies got the biggest cheers, though, with Who Am I, You and Iand Your Game. Leave Right Now proved popular, but not as much as Evergreen, where it all started all those years ago, which Will admitted was “the daddy of them all”. A superb show - including a wonderful band introduction from Will to Hit The Road Jack - great fun to watch. Our first Pop Idol, and still the one with the biggest X Factor of them all! Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/entertainme.../#ixzz1dgu67MR3
November 14, 201113 yr Author He was at the same show as I was. :yahoo: :dance: Makes it a better read when it comes from a man. :D
November 14, 201113 yr He was at the same show as I was. :yahoo: :dance: Makes it a better read when it comes from a man. :D Isn't it just the most wonderful review :cheer: :cheer: Fantastic reading :yahoo: Forgot my manners :blush: Thanks Sunday for posting this wonderful review up :cheer: Love Di xxx Edited November 14, 201113 yr by Dianne
November 14, 201113 yr He was at the same show as I was. :yahoo: :dance: Makes it a better read when it comes from a man. :D Brilliant isn't it :heart:
November 14, 201113 yr Author Brilliant isn't it :heart: Yes and from the tweets it sounds like he's going down a storm again tonight. :cheer:
November 14, 201113 yr Yes and from the tweets it sounds like he's going down a storm again tonight. :cheer: Yes ,was just reading those-so pleased he had another great night
November 16, 201113 yr Will Young by Joanne RobertsNov 16 2011 Llandudno Venue Cymru I’ve been a fan of Will Young ever since he stood in front of the Pop Idol judges, in his scruffy jumper and performed the Jackson’s Blame it on the Boogie. So when I was asked if I wanted to go along to his concert at Venue Cymru, I didn’t need much convincing. It’s almost a decade since Will wowed us all with his performances on the live, Pop Idol shows and after a quiet couple of years he’s back with a vengeance. His semi-final performance of Light my Fire surrounded by roaring fires and lithe dancers blew me away, and when he beat the favourite Gareth Gates to the winning title I believed nobody deserved it more. His debut single Evergreen went on to become the fastest selling debut single in chart history. Following the single's release, he went on to collect numerous awards and has sold eight million albums worldwide.He was in demand for every music event and in 2002 he performed at the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, which was followed by appearances at the Royal Albert hall, Wembley Arena and many more.Will has also tried his hand at acting, and appeared in the film Mrs Henderson Presents alongside Judi Dench. The film was released in 2005 to great reviews. Now Will is back on tour and he’s as good as ever, in fact I had forgotten how good he really is until I heard his distinctive, soulful voice again.Will performed many of his old favourites including my favourite, Light my Fire, along with Evergreen, Your Game and of course Leave Right Now, as well as songs from his new album Echoes finishing with an energetic performance of his latest hit single Jealousy.One of the highlights of the show was his entertaining introduction of the band, which he cleverly put to the soundtrack of Hit the Road Jack, but it was closely followed by his references to Lorraine Kelly, who he obviously has a high regard for. I must mention also the support act, a group of four lads who go by the name of Lawson, they played some great cover versions as well as some songs I didn’t recognise, which I presume was their own material. They received an enthusiastic response from the audience, so I think we will be hearing a lot more from them in the future.All in all it was a great night's entertainment, Will was his usual charismatic, unassuming self and captivated his audience with his melodic voice and natural charm. http://www.dailypost.co.uk/leisure/theatre...55578-29788786/
November 16, 201113 yr Author Thanks to Abbie. Manchester Evening News. Will Young Apollo Will Young takes to the stage in an I Love Manchester t-shirt and the crowd goes crazy. The Berkshire-born pop star explains that Manchester is his second home thanks to acting jobs. And he is welcomed 'home' with open arms for a rip-roaring hour and a half set. Kicking off with The Cure sound-alike Come On and the funky I Just Want A Lover from new album Echoes, I could swear Will - a veteran of almost 10 years since he won Pop Idol - looks and sounds younger with every tour. Changes, from his previous album Let It Go, is like a breath of fresh air. And he's rocking the crowd with the pounding Switch It On. The crowd whoops with delight when he transforms the stage into a smoky jazz club for his famous Pop Idol cover of The Doors' Light My Fire. Heart shaped confetti pours down during Silent Valentine, prompting him to tell us about his next love - a new puppy. He gleefully crowd surfs, chats away like we are all old friends and reads tributes written by pupils at Russell Scott Primary School in Denton. They sum it up with the words 'you have a fantastic voice', displayed when he belts out a faultless cover of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill. And he saves the best until last with the dreamy sad-disco stomper Jealousy. Kate Fitzpatrick
November 16, 201113 yr And yet another brilliant review. :yahoo: I agree with Kate Fitzpatrick. From what I've heard and seen from chats and vids he "looks and sounds younger with every tour". And he certainly appears much, much happier with the audience on this tour. :dance:
November 18, 201113 yr Review: Will Young Will Young commands a huge audience of all ages but mainly female. They shout out their love for him, have they missed something here, and there is palpable adoration in the air. He deserves that, he has a superb voice, his fine falsetto is controlled and his lower tones have the raunchy edge of a Motown singer. The current set is stripped of dancers and effects leaving the songs to speak for themselves and they are pretty good. He bounds around the stage at ease and has clearly come to terms with his fame and is comfortable with his talent too.Young is a skinny bundle of energy who sings like an angel and dances like he needs to go pee – what’s not to like. His patter is relaxed, very boy-next-door and perhaps this is why the whole doesn’t quite get that fifth star, brilliant as the band and his singing were there was at the end a certain lack of excitement. http://thelatest.co.uk/7/will-young
November 18, 201113 yr Author Think the reviewer may have been sitting in front of Di and I. Will, although BRILLIANT seemed to have to work harder to get the crowd going. Many seemed unfamiliar with the new material but by the end he had everyone on their feet and the applause was deafening.
November 21, 201113 yr Author Concert review: Will Young, 02 Academy, Birmingham Monday 21st November 2011, 1:37PM GMT. Will Young 02 Academy, Birmingham Concert review by Mark Drew Will Young is clearly in a good place at the moment. Ten years after his Pop Idol triumph, the singer has never been more in demand, and he clearly loved the more intimate surroundings of the O2 Academy. Young’s extended encore last night illustrated his strengths, with a stripped down version of Evergreen following a wonderfully melancholic cover of Kate Bush’s Running Up the Hill. And there was a clever introduction to the band in the form of Hit the Road Jack, which had the crowd roaring with laughter. This Pop Idol is all about the voice, which was good a decade ago and is just incredible now. There were plenty of upbeat moments as Young performed tracks from his more dancy album Echoes, especially the finale single Jealousy. And the singer enjoyed his usual banter, forming an impromptu quiz show as the audience attempted to guess who had been ousted from Strictly. But this concert was as much about absorbing his talent to take a song and wring every drop of emotion from it. His loyal audience, with an age range from 18 to 80, loved every minute of it. Read more: http://www.expressandstar.com/entertainmen.../#ixzz1eLjecH8P
November 22, 201113 yr Review: Will Young - O2 Academy, Birmingham by Andrew Coleman, Birmingham Mail Nov 22 2011 inShare THE phenomenon that is Will Young gave a stunning performance at a completely sold-out O2 Academy. Throughout the Sunday evening show fans were treated to little chats from the singer who gossiped about Strictly Come Dancing – revealing who had been voted off that night – and shared anecdotes and stories about things that has happened on the tour so far. The set was filled with tracks from his new album, along with Will’s classic hits like Changes, Light My Fire, You and I and Leave Right Now. With an encore of Kate Bush classic Running Up That Hill, an acoustic version of Evergreen and hit single Jealousy he rounded off a brilliant show in true Will Young style. I overheard one fan saying, “He just gets better every time I see him!”. VERDICT: HHHHH http://www.birminghammail.net/what-is-on-i.../#ixzz1eQNAq1vJ
November 22, 201113 yr Author Cambridge. Thanks to will4me Friday 18th November, The Corn Exchange, £35 OHEMMGEE, I LOVE WILL YOUNG. I’ll start with a confession. Will and I haven’t always seen eye to eye. In fact, there was a time – long, long ago – when I despised him. On 9th February 2002, Will cruelly stole the Pop Idol crown from Gareth Gates, my first love. And on that day I truly understood what it means to have a broken heart. But I stood by Gareth. I queued for hours in the rain to see him live; I started drinking Pepsi because it sponsored him; and I developed a sort-of faux-stutter. Hell, I even got my friend’s aunt’s friend, who worked in the same hospital as Gareth’s mum, to get me a signed photo. It was love of the truest form. But then something changed. Specifically, Gareth changed. He shagged Jordan. And then he lied about it. And then he married Susanna Mole. And named his baby Missy. And wore orange Ugg boots in public. And so, just like that, my love disappeared. I needed a new man on whom to focus my attentions (read: lust). Hello Will Young. Will’s winning performance of Evergreen And so I gave Will a chance. I went to see him do some acting in 2006, but I wasn’t ready, and I tripped him up. Five years later, I knew it was time to give him another shot. And so I went to The Corn Exchange ready to move on. And move on I did. From the moment Will entered that stage, he was so painfully handsome and effortlessly charismatic that it was neigh on impossible not to fall in love with him. His banter with the audience was so spot on that my friend (a male friend, I might add) turned to me and said: “I think I am ovulating.” So did I. And so we ovulated together. And when Will picked up a teddy bear that someone threw onto the stage, read the note and said: “Thanks Charlene,” I wished for nothing more than to be Charlene’s bear, sitting in the comfort of Will’s hands. Will opened with Jealousy, and was the perfect mix of cheeky, charming and genuinely brilliant. He continued to jump, dance and shimmy his way around the stage performing a perfect mix of his old classics and material from his new album, Echoes. New hit Jealousy Will was dressed head to toe in black, a sexy choice for a sexy, sexy man. His legs were perhaps a little too skinny, but his well-defined biceps made up for Sexy Will’s ONLY flaw. Oh Will. Oh charming Will. Other highlights included a fantastic cover of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, which was genuinely better than the original, and a tear-jerking performance of Silent Valentine, in which pink love hearts cascaded upon our hero’s manly form. But the standout moment was, without a doubt, Will’s closing performance of Evergreen. Until Friday night, I couldn’t listen to that song without weeping. It bought back all the memories of Gareth’s loss, you see. And true to form, I wept. But this time, I knew it was something different. This time I didn’t cry for Gareth, I cried for Will and Will’s voice alone. And in that moment, I simultaneously lost and found myself. God, I wish I were a gay man. http://cambridgetab.co.uk/culture/music/will-young
November 22, 201113 yr Author Will Young | A Unique Voice in British Pop November 22, 2011 Will Young has been gigging around the UK with songs from his new album Echoes which debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. The music comes from strong lyrical ideas, simple poppy and melancholic melodies. A tale of unrequited love, longing and desire. The multi-platinum-selling singer-songwriter, whose hits include Leave Right Now and All Time Love, performs at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Review by Alan Greenhalgh. It’s almost ten years since Will Young won Pop Idol in February 2002 and Echoes is his fifth album; recorded remarkably after he’d had his tonsils out. Co-produced by Richard X, known for his “synthesised, grungy pop music.” You can hear a bit of Kelis’s Milkshake, Climie Fisher’s Rise To The Occasion and The Beautiful South’s Mother’s Pride and Deacon Blue’s Dignity with Will sometimes singing in the space left by The Communards and Bronski Beat. The concert was intimate and warm, the crowd polite and ready for a gentle sway and sing-a-long. Lots of couples mouthed along to songs that they would later make babies to; songs new but sounding familiar. The opening has the beige-raincoated band come onto the stage through a black door marked with the mysterious Number 18. Leaving Will to exit last in his Steed bowler hat. The musicians and singers all exit through the front door and immediately take their coats and hats off; which didn’t make any sense. Why not enter the door? The huge back drop of white tiles or keyboard buttons that melted with fire reds and sparkled with blues was a technical marvel. The drums and keyboards perched up high on light boxes and three great vocalists with a fourth mike stand set up for Will so that he could join them to do his own backing vocals and join in with their dancing arms. Will was in an extremely jolly mood, huge smile, sparkling teeth and he gets an award for the funniest come back lines - he tells us that a woman in Glasgow wanted to ‘bash his back door in’ – which he said, ‘perturbed’ him. When would you ever hear a popstar staying he was perturbed? It felt like he wanted to stay for a chat and told us that he used to live on the other side of Shepherd’s Bush Green and came to gigs at the Empire… so he should have known that with a standing crowd on an un-raked floor to raise himself aloft on the stage so that we all could see him. Camera flashes only popped when he jumped up on the back stage and in a quieter moment the hecklers asked him to ‘save them from the tall people’. On one track he was even crouched lying down watching TV cartoons and disappeared for a whole song. Nice visual touches came for Silent Valentine with a cascade of paper hearts raining on the stage prompting Will to explain that at the last gig he’d swallowed one of the petals. The Avenger’s style exit at the last song, before the encore, had him bowlered-up and action jumping into the stage caught in one flash bulb monochromatic moment. There was a perfect pace to the evening with the anthemic and emphatic Come On which Will describes as his call to ‘man up!’ – a sure dancefloor hit – matched by his other hits and a cover of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill with its tremulous breathlessness. I Just Want A Lover which started off as a ballad duet and was recorded in just one hour, is one of the most upbeat songs. Will says ‘it’s for that time in between relationships when you don’t want anything serious.’ There are three sad songs on the Echoes album of which Lie Next To Me, a song written after a bad week, is about knowing that he couldn’t see someone, couldn’t touch them and just being beside them was all he was ever going to get. It was a colourful performance with a flashback to Pop Idol with Light my Fire and its orange lava lamp effects and a catchy finale of the bitter sweet Jealousy on a stage tinged to green. There’s a lesson in this album for us with Happy Now teaching not to hang on, releasing the past and about Will feeling content about being in his thirties and foregoing wrinkles for some wisdom. The most personal song on the album is Safe From Harm about learning to distance himself from a friend who can’t look after themself very well – not finishing the friendship but learning to look after himself. Will Young has is the most unique voice in British pop and after a performance like that we only wish Good Things for him. http://shinesquad.wordpress.com/2011/11/22...in-british-pop/
November 22, 201113 yr Will Young, O2 Empire, Shepherds Bush, review James Lachno reviews Will Young at the O2 Empire. 4/5 stars Will Young Photo: IAN JONES By James Lachno6:10PM GMT 22 Nov 2011Comment Halfway through this excellent gig, the ceiling above Will Young opened, releasing a spray of heart-shaped confetti that covered the singer. It was an image redolent of his victory in the inaugural Pop Idol competition in 2002. But Young has long since shaken off the tag of reality-TV product. As this performance proved, a decade into his career, he has developed into one of pop’s most admirable assets. Better still, the best could be yet to come. Young’s set was heavy with the atmospheric electro-pop from his latest chart-topping album, Echoes (released in August), a brave sideways shuffle in style away from his staple soul-inflected pop – perhaps ushering in his “experimental” phase. The new songs held up well in a live setting, driven by taut, melodic synth lines and grooving bass hooks. Dressed head to toe in black, Young seemed relaxed and confident in the new sound, while his controlled, pitch-perfect quiver eased comfortably into third gear. It was sedate but impressive, prioritising rhythm and mood, and felt well suited to the intimate stage at the O2 Empire. Perhaps it veered towards being too smooth and laid-back: only when Young began playing older hits was there a reminder of his incendiary singing ability. He revelled in the frenzied stop-start drama of blue-eyed gospel-soul hit Your Game, delivering a devastating vocal — which flitted between sultry and impetuous — and climbing a drum rack before hurling himself to the floor at the song’s violent conclusion. Elsewhere, Young refused to disavow his route to stardom, returning with poise to the lounge-jazz cover of the Doors’ Light My Fire that he’d first sung on reaching the final 50 of Pop Idol. More surprising was the inclusion of Evergreen, the Westlife cover released as his first single, which was reimagined as a pulsing, hypnagogic sketch, dovetailing neatly with the work from Echoes. Unfortunately, he also couldn’t resist the occasional cloying stage-school moment, a throwback to his enrolment as a musical theatre student before entering Pop Idol. The “introducing the band” segment, complete with jazz-hands and cloying lyrical improvisation, was particularly excruciating. But such instances were infrequent, and each was approached with a self-deprecation that almost made them forgivable. On his final song, the recent single Jealousy, Young came closest to marrying an explosive vocal with his designs on pop experimentation. While for now he is a very fine pop performer, one suspects it is this heady union that may yet bear the sweetest fruit. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/l...ush-review.html Edited November 22, 201113 yr by Sunday
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