Hassaan

Okay, I know it's only select artists doing this but I find it fascinating. Downloads overtook physical single sales in, what, the late 2000s? Are they considered a collector's item of sorts or are there people making a point of listening to 'As it Was' on CD?

Is this corroborated?

To think people complained about The X Factor getting it for four years in a row. At least they were different songs by different artists. For me, the sausage roll thing wore thin after the second year. There's obviously the wider thing as to why they're making out this is the only way that money can be raised for charity.

At least the X Factor songs were a different artist each year and a different type of song. I can't get over the fact people elsewhere still think four years of consecutive X Factor number ones killed the Xmas No. 1 tradition completely.

Mark is ill, so yesterday's show went ahead without him.

The arena leg of the tour began yesterday. The set list is exactly the same as the summer shows... Why release a whole new album if you're only going to perform one song from it? I appreciate these are basically the delayed 2020 shows but still.

To be fair he did have two successful albums so it wasn't as much of a 'one album' thing as it did end up being. He wasn't established enough to have 3 years off although it seems what he returned with wasn't strong enough with either if with the platform of 15 million viewers he couldn't utilise that.

Sounds pretty good on first listen. I wouldn't want him to move away from the Someone You Loved-type ballads completely though.

Maybe the arena stint will be different but I think this run of stadium shows was the delayed 'All the Hits' shows they were meant to be doing in 2020, hence not many new songs. They've lacked a looser bit like the stools medley thing they did in 2019, and a bit more crowd participation like the We Will Rock You bit.

Probably the latter but I'm not sure about the pricing compared to 2019. We are in the depths of the summer holidays. The 2019 concert was at the beginning of July so wasn't.

In the UK box office (August 5-7), the cinema showing took in £468,215 from 528 sites, coming in at no. 8 for the week. The 2019 cinema showing took in £899,488 from 545 sites, coming in at no. 4 for the week.

I went. As I mentioned it was my first ever concert. It was really good and seemed really rowdy. For the act they are I think the turnout was really strong.

Well, they said the Euros final last Sunday was sold out but there were still a few missing seats. The middle-back of the 'pitch area' wasn't as full outside of the chairs that were already there but I estimate there were still about 70-80k people in there.

They've just released a 4K version of the You Raise Me Up music video:

Their total album sales in the UK are, what, 13 million? I'm surprised they're not in that yeah, especially if the lowest in that list is 9 million in total.

I'm going to the Wembley concert. My first ever concert. Intrigued to see if it does anything for their sales. I do still wish they'd do more performances of songs they don't perform that much.

Sometimes I feel the previous label tried to utilise what they have a lot better, and if they were able to tour in 2020 they'd have actually been able to sing songs from Spectrum. I'm only guessing though, who knows. I can understand playing the hits cos that's what people know but I don't see why they'd be adverse to the new songs.

Do they just not want to sing the newer songs or what? :D

I'm seeing a few comments that they've changed the setlist slightly.

They've barely performed the new songs anywhere. Is it any wonder people don't know them?

We can't act surprised at songs not charting without being given the appropriate push given their fanbase and the whole streaming stuff. Even if that involves doing more CD singles and releasing songs on a Friday, not a Wednesday! The albums have charted and sold well but I don't believe the singles can't have done better than they did.

I did wonder if things would be different with the label change and everything, that they would at least make the best use of what they actually have as opposed to expecting them to be the Westlife they were in the early 2000s which won't be the case given their age. That's the annoying part. The songs are there. Why aren't they singing them? Save the old hits for the big televised gigs or something. Surely they could also pull surprises out of the bag at Wembley too. Bring on Ed Sheeran to duet with them on a few songs, like one of his (Perfect) and one of theirs (Flying Without Wings as Ed has covered that). EDIT: Also listening to a clip of Hello My Love from last night, it seems they've re-used the same playback track as 2019 based on Kian's vocals. I mean, come on now.

I agree. The fans aren't too happy about that set list and I don't blame them. Keep the crowd favourites but a 9-song medley is very long - mind you, the Queen one was seven. Also I don't think Westlife fans are too bothered if they never sing Mandy again! I wanna hear Take Me There, Without You, Another Life, My Hero etc (the songs from Spectrum jumped out at me more than Wild Dreams but there's still some good tracks in there).

ABBA Medley. Interesting. It seems to align with what they said on the Jonathan Ross show last year about Louis Walsh (or whoever manages them) telling them they should stick with the big hits cos that's what people remember. I am disappointed that they basically haven't been able to tour these two new albums. Yes they've been away for 3 years but it's a shame that there's so many good songs we may never hear live. Their set-lists have changed before. In 2012 for their Farewell Tour they didn't keep Beautiful World for every date.

Oh I should have clarified. I believe Nicky & Kian's solos and Mark's high ad libs in the final chorus are playback, but the rest isn't (well, bar the chorus obviously). I.e, Shane is singing completely live and Mark's pre-choruses are live too.