Concert Review October 6th 1998, Birmingham NEC

I arrived at the NEC feeling very excited. I have liked Boyzone since they started and I was about to see them live for the first time. After trekking what seemed like miles from the car park and getting crushed in the queue for the merchandise for half an hour, I finally made it to my seat. For the record, I got tickets through the fanclub priority booking and they were excellent seats. I was on the floor of the arena, right in front of the stage, about 10 rows from the front. I got through about half an hour after tickets went on sale to fan club members so I must have just got lucky. About five minutes after I got to my seat, the lights went down and Paper Dolls started. They did three songs including their single Gonna Make You Blush, and I thought they were just average. To be fair, they did sing live and they were good at playing to the crowd. Most people were sitting down during their performance.

Straight after Paper Dolls Christian Fry came on. He did four songs including his single You Got Me, which is out on the 26th of October. The audience seemed to like him, he got quite loud cheering and most people were standing up. I liked him, he is a good singer and dancer and is good looking as well! The same CF logo and about two pictures were on the screens all the way through his performance, so it got a bit boring after a while. Then there was a short break and some videos were played on the screens. There was various boring adverts which kept being repeated, but there was also an advert for Smash Hits featuring clips of Boyzone videos and an advert for the "Boyzone Live Where We Belong" video (out on November 16) which got extremely loud screams every time they were played. There was also messages from Boyzone in there but I couldn't hear what they said over all the screaming!

Then the lights went down again and it was Westside's turn. They were easily the best of the support acts. The whole crowd stood up and they got cheers almost as loud as Boyzone. They are from Ireland and are good singers and extremely good looking. They did three songs, including one called Forever which I was sure I'd heard before. I think Damage did it but I'm not sure.

Straight after Westside it was the final support act Hinda Hicks. She did five songs including (I think) all her singles and her new one Truly which is out on October 12. About half the audience was standing up for her bit. She was good but I thought she went on for too long considering everybody was dying for Boyzone to come on!

After Hinda Hicks there was another short break with the same adverts on the screens and everyone was getting incredibly impatient waiting for Boyzone to come on. A mexican wave started and went around the arena about 10 times which helped pass the time. When the lights went down the noise was absolutely deafening. Then the curtain went up and we saw the stage for the first time. The stage had the area at the front where Boyzone did most of their performing. The band were split in half, they were towards the back of the stage on either side. Between the two halves of the band there was a revolving platform which was used during several parts of the show. At either side of the stage there was a long flight of steps leading to a platform high above the stage. During the show people came on from the side of the stage, through an entrance behind the revolving platform and from the high platform and down the stairs.

The first people to come on were the dancers. They used torches in their routine, which carried on for the next few songs. Above the high platform there was five "capsules" with seats in them which I thought Boyzone were going to come from but they turned out to be for light, sound and camera men. Boyzone eventually came down on a platform that was lowered from the ceiling. It came down slowly and they had to stand there motionless looking very serious all the way down.

They looked very sexy all in black, and when they finally got down they launched straight into Must Have Been High. The dancers joined them on stage and the whole routine was excellent and had obviously had a lot of work put into it. They went straight into What Can You Do For Me and One Kiss At A Time. The dancers then left the stage and they all stood on the revolving platform to perform Baby Can I Hold You. They stood on the platform spinning round all the way through the song and must have been very dizzy by the end! Then they stood at microphone stands in the normal fashion to perform All That I Need.

They all left the stage and Steve came back in a very nice white suit for his solo bit. He did some very impressive dancing and then sang Games Of Love with the dancers helping him out. Then he slowed it down a bit to perform Where Did You Go.

Next was one of the highlights of the show, a Grease Medley. A Grease banner came down from the ceiling and the crowd went mad. The boys all wore jeans, t-shirts and T-bird jackets and had very nice quiffs! A car came down from the ceiling on the platform, complete with the numberplate BZ 1 DUBLIN. First Ronan sang Grease and then did Greased Lightning running all over the place looking very sexy. Next one of the dancers joined Mikey to sing Summer Nights. Finally Steve sang Summer Loving. The female dancers played the Pink Ladies and the male dancers joined in with Boyzone. I've seen the "proper" Grease in London and I thought they did it much better. Of course, I'm not biased at all!

Then it was Keith solo time when he performed Where Have You Been. He was obviously enjoying himself, he sounded very good running all over the stage rocking out. He started on his own and was joined part way through by Ronan to sing backing vocals. When Ronan came on the cheering got even louder and forever the gentleman, he pointed at Keith and told us to cheer for him! Straight after Mikey came on for his solo, Good Conversation. He stood still instead of running all over the stage like Keith, but he sounded excellent.

Next the dancers came back on with various flaming torches and banners. The boys were wearing various "African" style clothes, with Ronan wearing an "interesting" leopard print suit and tie. Keith had stolen the matching cowboy hat and this was a running joke through the next few songs. They sang A Different Beat with the whole arena doing the actions during the chorus.

Then the dancers left and they sang And I. A sofa appeared on the stage and they sang This Is Where I Belong and Words sitting down. They looked like they could do with a rest by then! During Words the crowd sang part of the second verse and the very end. During these two songs lots of teddies were thrown onto the stage and one in particular was very well aimed, landing right in Keith's lap. One almost hit Ronan in the head and he ducked just in time.

Everyone left the stage and Ronan sang Melting Pot with the same dancer who had sung Sandy's parts in Grease. During the song the other boys, the dancers and some gospel singers wearing various coloured sheets came on. Keith had found another cowboy hat so he gave Ronan his back!

They said it was the end of the show then but really there was another three songs to go. They came back on dressed all in white. They were all wearing long white jackets with chinese symbols on the back and sang No Matter What. The next song was I Love The Way You Love Me. I hadn't heard it before and all I could make out over the screaming was the chorus. It will be released in November and I think it could be the Christmas number one. For part of the song they stood on the platform and were rocked around by some of the dancers.

The final song of the night was Picture Of You. At the end some blinding fireworks went off and when I looked back a split second later they had gone. I don't know how they got off so quickly. The screens showed them running outside and getting on the bus and then it said "See Ya".

They all sounded great live. They didn't do much dancing but what they did do was very good. Ronan is even more gorgeous in the flesh than on TV or in pictures. They all looked very happy and relaxed on stage and it was obvious how much they loved each other in parts when they hugged each other. Overall, I was very lucky to get such good seats and it was a brilliant show.

I'd like to say a big thank you to Laura Gilbert for letting me use the photos she took in Bournemouth!

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