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On Sunday evening (not yesterday, the one before that) I ventured out in TERRIBLE weather and battled with transport nonsense to get to Hammersmith to see Will Young with kikishua.
IT WAS SO GOOD!
Support was Lemar, who I do like a lot, and even more after seeing him live – he just had one guy playing acoustic guitar as his musical background, and he was a very engaging artist, chatting a lot and he has a great voice. Also he’s from London so points for that :D /shameless favouritism.
His current album, The Letter, is out now – www.lemar-online.com/
Haven’t bought it yet but based on the songs we heard, would recommend.
Now, the main event. Will Young has been one of my favourite pop stars since he won Pop Idol. This is the first time I’ve seen him live as him, but I have seen him in Cabaret (excellent). I love his voice and although my tastes tend more towards electronic music, there are so many songs of his that I love. I also love his visual sensibilities – you can tell he is an artist that loves making music videos (a lot of them basically seem to be AU fic, really). Music videos are sort of my first fandom (a fandom of one, in a way, because it’s difficult to find people into the same music videos as you are, haha) so finding artists that actually like making them is great for me. Anyway, I’ll link at the end.
It’s always difficult to guess how a solo artist will stage a live show, because although they have a band, the band are usually pretty anonymous. I really liked the staging of this show, which involved a lot of plastic sheeting, and Will being dressed as some weird monk. Oh and the stage crew being dressed in white boiler suits (band and backing singers were just in normal clothes).
The first song was Brave Man, and was sung with Will facing to the right of the stage, singing into a wind machine blowing things at him. It was a really interesting visual choice to start off with (I did think the whole show was about five minutes of planning off being a total concept show with singer Will trapped in a dystopia, and I would have been there for that).
After that the staging became more traditional, and there was a fair amount of audience interaction which was great (although audiences everywhere could learn that just because you can shout at the artists doesn’t mean you should), and the songs were fantastic. He’s just got an amazing voice.
The set list was great, although I was disappointed there was no Hopes and Fears because I love that song. However that was the only song I missed, and hearing the other songs (Who am I! Jealousy! LOVE REVOLUTION!) live was just brilliant.
The only thing I thought was a bit odd was ending on Leave Right Now, which I absolutely LOVE but which is a sad song to have at the end of your show. However it was the last night of the tour and the second (!) encore and it was fantastic.
Anyway, videos! In no particular order:
( cut because embeds )
IT WAS SO GOOD!
Support was Lemar, who I do like a lot, and even more after seeing him live – he just had one guy playing acoustic guitar as his musical background, and he was a very engaging artist, chatting a lot and he has a great voice. Also he’s from London so points for that :D /shameless favouritism.
His current album, The Letter, is out now – www.lemar-online.com/
Haven’t bought it yet but based on the songs we heard, would recommend.
Now, the main event. Will Young has been one of my favourite pop stars since he won Pop Idol. This is the first time I’ve seen him live as him, but I have seen him in Cabaret (excellent). I love his voice and although my tastes tend more towards electronic music, there are so many songs of his that I love. I also love his visual sensibilities – you can tell he is an artist that loves making music videos (a lot of them basically seem to be AU fic, really). Music videos are sort of my first fandom (a fandom of one, in a way, because it’s difficult to find people into the same music videos as you are, haha) so finding artists that actually like making them is great for me. Anyway, I’ll link at the end.
It’s always difficult to guess how a solo artist will stage a live show, because although they have a band, the band are usually pretty anonymous. I really liked the staging of this show, which involved a lot of plastic sheeting, and Will being dressed as some weird monk. Oh and the stage crew being dressed in white boiler suits (band and backing singers were just in normal clothes).
The first song was Brave Man, and was sung with Will facing to the right of the stage, singing into a wind machine blowing things at him. It was a really interesting visual choice to start off with (I did think the whole show was about five minutes of planning off being a total concept show with singer Will trapped in a dystopia, and I would have been there for that).
After that the staging became more traditional, and there was a fair amount of audience interaction which was great (although audiences everywhere could learn that just because you can shout at the artists doesn’t mean you should), and the songs were fantastic. He’s just got an amazing voice.
The set list was great, although I was disappointed there was no Hopes and Fears because I love that song. However that was the only song I missed, and hearing the other songs (Who am I! Jealousy! LOVE REVOLUTION!) live was just brilliant.
The only thing I thought was a bit odd was ending on Leave Right Now, which I absolutely LOVE but which is a sad song to have at the end of your show. However it was the last night of the tour and the second (!) encore and it was fantastic.
Anyway, videos! In no particular order:
( cut because embeds )
