#Review – Blue, M&S Arena, Liverpool

There was nothing BLUE about this concert on a snowy Sunday evening with treacherous freezing foggy.as at Liverpool’s dockland arena.  Blue lit it up and definitely knew how to entertain the crowd with a medley of songs from their back catalogue plus their own interpretations of Motown songs. Fantastic!

Noughties boy band, consisting of Lee Ryan, Antony Costa, Duncan James and Simon Webbe proved they were well and truly back.  They make no apologies for claiming they want to make a comeback and reaffirm their place in music history; having the trappings that a celebrity lifestyle brings.  I say this after watching recent TV interviews and reading articles written about the band who have high hopes that following the pandemic and pursuing individual careers they are now ready to reform and get out on the road again with vengeance.

They wowed the audience with their dance moves, style and harmonies from the start of the concert until the end, despite announcing at the beginning of their set that they felt like One Direction’s naughty uncles.  They demonstrated their professionalism by strutting, posing and singing their way through an 18 set concert with relative ease.  Occasionally, some high notes were missed and occasionally the synchronised ‘cheesy’ dance moves were missed and yes, their dress sense was questionable however, they definitely knew how to ‘rev up’ the crowd and get everyone in a party atmosphere.  A true value for money concert.

The audience surprisingly were mainly male and covering a range of ages.  There were also a number of middle aged female girl gangs who delighted in screaming for their favourite band member, copying the dance moves and screeching out the lyrics to certain tracks.  

Overall they were edgy and despite the cheesiness you were swept up in two hours of unadulterated fun.  Would I see them again ..?Yes!  Did my eighteen year old daughter, who was reluctant to go, enjoy it…definitely!  She was singing and dancing all the way through and not even begrudgingly admitted to her dad when she got home, that ‘he had missed a great concert.’  So if that’s not praise enough from a hard to impress late teenager then try to catch them on the rest of their 14-date 20th anniversary tour in December  2022.and into the early part of 2023.

Set list:

Sorry seems To Be the Hardest Word, Heart And Soul, Haven’t found You Yet, U Make Me Wanna, Magnetic, Ultraviolet, Paradise, Motown medley Get Ready/Signed, Sealed, Delivered/Get Down On It, King Of The World, Guilty/Long Time, Breathe Easy, Too Close, Dance With Me, This could Be Love, Fly By, Bubblin’, All Rise.

Encore:

One Love

Blue were initially supported by Megan McKenna who started her arena tour debut four years ago,  McKenna of TOWIE fame has a wonderful pitch and tone to her voice and looks every inch a pop star.  Unfortunately, I don’t think that she will make the transition to the higher echelons of the music industry as it has proved to be difficult to shed her stereotypical Essex girl image that was negatively portrayed in the programme.  For me, this is such a shame as despite seeing her perform on a number of occasions where she just gets better and better with the quality of her songwriting and performing skills, she is not taken seriously.. enough.Check out her single, The Good, the Bad, The Bitch, catchy, sassy, leaving you humming it long after she left the stage.

The Irish four piece girl band Bewitched appeared next.  The double denim wearing girls delivered  punch after punch with their back catalogue of songs.  They chatted to the audience on numerous occasions and made reference to being one member down due to family issues, yet their performance was first class and before you realised their set was complete.  I along with the rest of the audience didn’t want it to end and played their music on my way into work this morning – and nothing normally makes me turn off a bit of Roman Kemp on Capital FM.