Will Young – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool – A Review

Will Young, the 2002 winner of Pop Idol, entertained an all age audience recently at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall with the 10th gig of a twenty seven night tour, aptly named, The 20 Years Tour, which celebrated his time in the music industry.

Having read and been influenced by stories of Will’s public spat with Simon Cowell, I had semi made up my mind that this was going to be a concert I would reluctantly attend and at best, possibly come away thinking it was a reasonable performance. How wrong was I? 

This four times multi platinum artist was charming, humble, funny and highly entertaining from the moment he stepped onto the stage.  He just had fun with the band, his backing singers, roadies and most of all his audience.  

Young clearly has a loyal following of dedicated fans who not only knew all the lyrics to his songs over the years but also the new tracks that were neatly interspersed throughout the concert. 

He never quite explained why he choose to wear all white. A full tailcoat, white loafers, braces on his high waisted trousers (perhaps Simon Cowell had influenced him more than he thought) and a frilly white dress shirt. I simply put this down to his quirkiness and confidence in his own brand and ultimate style.  He carried it off though and now I think about it, why shouldn’t he?  He was there to entertain and be different and he truly lived up to that. 

His voice was amazing which matched his fabulous back catalogue of tracks. This is a true artist who is worthy of the global critical acclaim heaped upon him.  He is bluesy, soulful and writes lyrics that are beyond his maturity for an audience that truly appreciate and recognize talent. He is much loved and a true national treasure and one that we want around, for a long time to come!

Again… I don’t know what I was really expecting of the twice nominated UK’s Favourite Artist. He was crude yet, utterly hilarious when he informed the audience of a ‘hook-up’ that had happened the night before and even went on to rate, out of ten, the experience before self deprecatingly stating, he also thought his performance was good as he didn’t realise that A) he still had it – good pulling power and B) that he was impressed by his own flexibility.  He later told the audience that his mum and manager who were in the auditorium, had warned him to behave and not say anything inappropriate given he was still on a high from the previous night’s escapades.’  Well…he never listened to them and the audience loved him for it as he simply endeared himself further to the crowd with his infectious tales and banter. He never divulged who the lucky guy was, I can only assume it was someone from Liverpool as he constantly said, with more than a twinkle in his eye and lots of raucous laughter, ‘that he always’ gets a warm welcome when he comes here.’ 

This is a performer that needs to be a ‘must see’ on any gig goers bucket list.  Catch him at one of his remaining gigs around the UK.

Set List: Evergreen, Love Revolution, I just Want a Lover, Light My Fire, Daniel, Changes, All Time Love, The Long Winding Road, Come On, Losing Myself, Who Am I?, You and Me, Grace, Switch it On. 

Encore: Joy, Jealousy, Leave Right Now.