On Sunday 24th November, I attended the Magic at Christmas concert (hosted by the Magic radio station) at The London Palladium.
This was a concert which had a multi-artist line up (with an initial total of 6 artists, but sadly James Morrison had to pull out due to ill health).
Artists:
Beverley Knight
Will Young
Jack Savoretti
Mick Hucknall
Martin and Shirley Kemp
Robbie Williams
Concert hosts: Harriet Scott and Martin Kemp
The main reason I attended the concert, was to see my two favourites Jack and Mick, perform live on stage. This is now the second time that I have seen Jack live and is the very first time I have seen Simply Red.
The first act opened with soul singer Beverley Knight. I was seeing her perform for the very first time and I was extremely impressed with her singing prowess and her personality. I enjoyed her songs and will definitely be listening to more of her work.
Will Young was next and even though I am not too familiar with his work apart from his hit song Leave Right Now, I found him to be very charming on stage until he decided to take his microphone with him instead of leaving it behind! I was pleasantly surprised to then see Martin Kemp (Spandau Ballet, Eastenders) perform with his wife Shirley (Wham!) Kemp, a christmas song from their brand new album. It was a lovely moment to see husband and wife perform on stage together.
Jack Savoretti was of course one of the main highlights of the concert for me, and while I thoroughly enjoyed his set (he performed twice), I do wish he had performed Candlelight from his super hit album Singing to Strangers. As a true fan of his, I feel very grateful to have seen him perform his latest single (and Christmas song) Christmas Morning, as he performed it for the very first time at this concert. I was also happy to see his violinst and band member Philip accompany him on the songs Youth and Love, Christmas Morning and What More Can I Do? .
Simply Red closed the end of act one, with a standing ovation performance of their superhit songs Stars, Something Got Me Started and Sweet Child. Mick totally knew how to get the audience going and even entertained us with stories and banter. He has an amazing presence on stage and it made me very happy to see the kind of respect and reactiom he received from the audience.
The musical afternoon ended with a much hyped but (in my opinion) disappointing performance of christmas songs from Robbie Williams. I was sincerely looking forward to hearing him sing Angels (it is my only favourite song of his) only to be disappointed as he made us (the audience!) sing it for him. The less said about his Christmas album, the better.
So would I attend a Magic at Christmas concert again? I think it will depend completely on the line up. I was surprised that Magic had provided their own musicians as because of this, we couldn’t see Jack and Mick perform in their true light with their own bands. A lot of things could have been a bit better organised, but on the whole, it definitely was a fun musical event, a great way to support a radio station that I have always loved and a great chance to be at one of London’s most prestigious entertainment venues The London Palladium. You can listen back to the full concert from 6pm tonight, on Magic radio.
Below are just some of the highlights of the concert.
Jem Girl at the Piano 