Concert review
Evening News Arena, Manchester, UK - 10 April 2001
by Hazel
I've been sitting on the train all of the way from Lime Street to Victoria
(?) station next to my highly excitable friend. I mean don't get me wrong,
I'm excited too, but this is my friends birthday treat and she is what you
might call "on the deeper side of obsessed" when it comes to Texas. Sure, I
know some of the songs from the radio, and I have often been caught singing
along, but my friend knows every word to every song. She has really built
herself up for an amazing time, and I just hope that they are as good live as
they are recorded. The manchester evening news is one of those venues
usually performed in by manufactured boybands etc. and I have visions of
people miming to a tape with uncomfortable looking dance routines. My friend
has been here once before, to hear the Spice Girls perform (I would just like
to say in her defence that this was for her kid sisters birthday party, not
like that stops me from winding her up about it at every available
opportunity). We get off the train and I am amazed by the size of the venue.
I have been to concerts before, but nothing as big as this. I really hope
that Sharl can cope with such a massive audience.
After a little "difference of opinion" as to which way we are supposed to go,
we eventually found our seats. I felt pretty dizzy looking down towards the
stage; our seats are only six or seven rows away from the back, and that's a
LONG way up. The support band "Reef" were playing at the time, they were
okay. To the right audience, they would have been a lot better, but I don't
think many Texas fans would also be Reef fans, if you know what I mean. My
Dad is into Reef, and he has a very, ummm "different" taste when it comes to
music. They had one song I knew, "put your hands on", I think it was used by
TFI Friday as "It's Your Letters...." or something like that. After about
three-quarters of an hour, the band do the whole "thankyou, you've been
great. We are Reef" thing, they go and adverts/pretty awful music (you know
the type of music you get when bands are setting up) starts up. My friend is
continually glancing at her watch, she (and I) want the concert to start
A.S.A.P. because we are getting the train at 11:12. So we are both very
relieved when the adverts and already described music disappear and an
instrumental..umm..ly bit starts. Everyone stops chatting, and the arena
goes silent (well, apart from the music, of course, but you know what I mean).
================HERE IT IS; THE TEXAS BIT=================
Everyone is staring at the stage, we are waiting for Sharleen to make some
great showbiz appearance. We are waiting for quite a while, listening to the
build up to the first song. Then, the lights change. Everyone is watching
as Shar appears on stage, all dressed up in.........
....a loose fitted white T-shirt and some comfy looking jeans. Ahh well, I
suppose it must be pretty hot down there (DNF I am sitting at the top of the
arena, but I can imagine that all the standing people are burning up). She
goes straight into the first song...I'm not 100% sure, I think it was Black
eyed Boy (you have to remember, I'm not your obsessive type fan). Straight
away I noticed how good she sounded live, and when she held the "tiiiiiiime"
it went right through me (in a good way). Everyone was singing along (except
for the guy sitting next but one to me, who didn't look too well and was
complaining of earache, but....oh damn, spoiled the effect a wee bit there,
didn't I)? I loved Sharleen's singing voice, hardly your usual high, sweet,
fake american style, is it?
When the song ended, and the applause and whistling from the crowd had
(eventually) died down, Sharl started chatting with the audience about
Manchester being okay as a place to perform. I couldn't make out everything
she was saying through the accent, but I could tell that she was informal,
chatty and relaxed. The next few songs were all ones I knew; Once in a
Lifetime, Halo, When We Are Together. To be honest, I was worried that they
were going to do all the songs I knew, and there would be a big chunk of
songs I didn't know in the middle. This was kind of true, but I loved every
song I heard. Somewhere in the middle of the concert, about ten-ish, she
started talking about all the guys whistling her from the audience. She said
how it annoyed her that many of them would be a lot less confident if they
were face to face. She proved this point very well when she dragged some
guy, called Simon, out of the audience. He was from Manchester, very tall
and very nervous. He seemed to be having trouble forming complete sentences,
mostly coming out with "yup", "uh-huh" or an
oh-my-god-ground-please-swallow-me-up nervous smile. She started off by
scaring him, telling him, and us, about how she got some guy to strip on a
previous night. She must have seen how nervous he looked because she stopped
"tormenting" him and called another two out of the audience.
The second guy was called Adrian or something, just your average guy. The
third was a complete (cough)! who was very ..umm.. into himself. She paired
off these two with her (very good) backing vocalists whilst she chose Simon
as her dancing partner, there was a short dancing competition between the
three men. Poor Simon looked worse than before, I don't think he moved the
whole time, Sharl just sorta danced around him.
At the end, Sharl asked everyone to cheer for whoever they thought should
win. Adrian got a pretty good cheer, "Tibius" as he chose to call himself
got hissed and boo-d. Then, she is like, what about my boy? Loud cheer. As
she is chucking them off the stage, she says to *Tibius* "Well, you learned
something from tonight. No-one likes a smart ar*e". Another loud cheer.
Then, she got someone to pass her guitar, took a few moments to "focus" then
played a beautiful song, which I hadn't heard before. As I will say for the
third (I think) time, I only know Texas from the Radio, so this song was new
to me. I think after looking through these song names, it must have been "So
In Love With You". I can already hear the gasps and the omigod how can she
not know that one type comments, please forgive me!!!!!
Anyway I am going on a bit here so I'd better get back to the important bit.
Just before the encore, we were told to "go mental" if we wanted to hear
more. We did as we were told. Sharl appeared dressed in leather and did
that song where she is dressed as Elvis. That was great, and I finally got
the chance to stand up after being confined to my seat by..well..other people
confined to their seats. There was an energy in that arena, probably not one
it was used to it's usual spice girl style performances. That song was
followed by a cover of "Suspicious Minds", which was great, and even got
earache guy out of his mood and singing. At the end of that song, Sharl is
like "see ya", and they all walk off stage. Some people are leaving, but in
my experience of concerts, the lights go up at the end, and they hadn't. So
Anna and I stay put. Others in the arena obviously are thinking the same
way, as there is a lot of stamping/clapping/screaming/whistling (earache guy
has gone, thank god)! The screaming was worth it, cuz they come back and do,
in my opinion of course, an outstanding performance of Say What You Want.
I'm singing so loud even tho' my head hurts, and I'm thinking about how bad
my throats gonna wreck in the morning. When the song ends and the lights go
up and I have to walk down the stairs, I'm in some weird trance which only
ever happens when you see a really good film or go to a really good concert,
you know when you forget where you are? It's taking every ounce of my
concentration (okay, I know concentration can't be weighed, but it sounds
good) to walk down the stairs without falling over.
Anna and I board the train, there are about seven times more people on that
train then it was designed for, so I have to stand. There is one seat for us
to share, but I think how sweaty and ick I'm feeling after that concert and
think better of sharing seats. I let Anna sit down. I'm shattered and I
don't want to stand, but I'm thinking "hey! Why don't we sing a Texas song to
pass the time it's gonna take to get home?" I turn to Anna to make my
suggestion. Fast asleep. It's gonna be a looooong journey home.
This wonderful(ly bad) review was brought to you by Hazel aged 14 from the
Wirral. I apologise for bad spelling, ditto punctuation, ditto grammar, but
I want to get this review written. I also apologise for going on and on and
on, it's just my style. If you are still awake after reading, then make sure
you bookmarked this website. I think it's great!
(Now where's that cheque you promised me, Dirk)?
(Note from Dirk : your check is in the mail, I had a problem with figuring out all the 00000's. The only problem is you can't cash a Eurocheque in the UK :^) )
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