lovely reviews thank you

Thanks Norma. maybe I am not checking too often...Twitter seems to have more photos and updates than face book, but I may not be looking at the right place. On facebook, I only found 'you're are the Voice on each venue.

Hi Kay. Sorry you had to wait lol! G4 keep their Twitter and Facebook pages (both group and individual) well updated with info, photos and videis and they've been putting live Facebook posts up from each of their concerts right at the end. There are a couple of G4 fan pages on Facebook too. My little camera does an okay job but isn't brilliant, particularly with stage lighting, and unfortunately I only got a couple of rather blurry pics at the end too.

...continues... as I can't put the cursor at the end anymore..so continues from ? at the end. It is lovely to hear about Jonathan's Birthday concert. In Peterborough, a lucky lady had her birthday. Shame, my birthday was 11 days too early. She was serenaded by the boys.

Thank you Norma for the review at last! I have been waiting! as I don't read anything else. Where else do you get info and video and pic

Hi Kay and everyone - I completely forgot about the review thread here....despite being the one who started it - ooops!!!! Anyway, yes I did go to the Scarborough concert and it was absolutely wonderful, as I knew it would be!

It has been 10 years since G4 performed in Scarborough, so it was a well overdue visit. It was also Jonathan's birthday which made the day extra special and there were photos and comments from him all day on Twitter saying he'd spent the day fishing at the harbour with Nathan (although they caught nothing as the tide was 'wrong'), and then BBQ-ing outside The Spa (not sure what the Council would say to that lol!). They were certainly, and very rightly, impressed with the panoramic views of the South Bay from the tour bus!

They were supposed to have performed in the Spa Theatre which was a smaller, more intimate venue upstairs at The Spa, but, on arrival, we were told that they would be in The Grand Hall instead, which is a much larger space. I wasn't doing Meet and Greet for this show (long story, but when I booked the tickets I didn't think I'd make it in time for that), but it was lovely to see and chat to those who had done it on our arrival at the theatre and to greet and catch up with some old friends. I was a bit concerned about the 'camera police' as they are notorious for being very vigilant at that venue (I've been caught out there a few times!), but, thankfully, they must have been informed because no one batted an eyelid about taking photos.

I won't go into the format of the show as I think most folk have read about it / seen photos and videos. Obviously, being Jonathan's birthday, some things were a bit different. Jonathan mentioned his 'big day' very early in the show and said that he had hoped to have a sauna, massage and Turkish bath until he realised it wasn't that sort of Spa lol! :) Then, when the boys were seated ready to start singing 'My Way, Ben set the pitch note as usual, and away they went with 'Re....' and then stopped! Jonathan looked confused for a few seconds, until Mike launched into a rendition of Happy Birthday To You which everyone joined in with. Then Jonathan was given a present from the rest of the lads in a bag marked 'To The Blond', and a cake was brought on stage for Jonathan to blow out the candles!

(Sorry the pic is a bit blurry - it all happened so fast and my little camera couldn't keep up! Anyway, this is Jonathan about to blow out the candles on his cake! :) )

The rest of the show carried on as usual, with all the audience well and truly enjoying the performance. A lot of folk were up on their feet and dancing/singing by the end and the rapturous applause said it all really. There were a lot of new faces (or folk I hadn't seen before) and I'm sure the boys made lots of new fans which was terrific. In fact I spoke to a couple who were busy booking another venue on their phone whilst waiting to meet the guys afterwards - they had been so impressed, they wanted to do it all again!

As usual the guys were happy to chat and have photos taken with everyone and were in good spirits. Oli Nez was also there at the signings, but, sadly, not Mary-Jess as she wasn't very well and only just made it through the show, bless her. (I was glad to hear she was fine the next night in Weymouth).

So, all in all, it was a terrific night and I hope G4 won't leave it too long before they visit Scarborough once again.

Forgot to say, G4 also sang Jerusalem. I only become loving the song after G4 sang years ago. I love the powerful take by G4. Besides....I can't amend my post! wish I could add another f for 'take of' in the last sentence. Shame!

Enjoy your concert Norma. Is it Scarborough you are going?

Thanks so much for that brilliant and detailed review, Kay! :) Sounds like it was a wonderful evening of entertainment at Peterborough. It's great that they're getting such an enthusiastic response at places they haven't visited lately or visited at all - hopefully there will be lots of new G4 fans made! :) Lovely detail about the songs and the performers - it all sounds lovely! I have another couple of days to wait until I see the show but your review has really whetted my appetite! Thanks again for posting it.

Peterborough, Cresset 7 March

That was a very enjoyable evening. I was not expecting too many G4 groupies in my city (maybe I have a chip on my shoulder as G4 had not come since the first year after Xfactor) but as well as Shirley I went with, I managed to say hi to a few old friends. Sorry Christine and Colin, I only saw you sitting at the front central seats as usual, and we were at the first of tiered seats as we normally do (avoiding too much of amps volume and to be able to see over other people’s heads).

The venue was great as it was 15 mins walk from home. No worry about traffic or parking. Instead of going to my regular choir’s rehearsal on Tuesday night, I headed to Cresset. (I should practice at home as we will have a concert in the cathedral in 2 week’s time)

First, get a little criticism out of the way. The Bass was too heavy. The sound made the floor rumbling and shook my heart and tummy. It was not the fault of the Cello player but the sound mix. Maybe the mixer was used to do pop concert with heavy Boom Boom Bass sound. As well as Bass, I prefer lesser amps volume (but I suppose you are tired of me saying

Now I can begin with a good thing. It was nice to have live backing with a string trio, Oli Nez and a piano. They were great. I was glad the string trio was not the fancy rock cum classic sort. They all look lovely, but their main role was to play beautifully to accompany G4. Oli was lovely. He appeared first and played some of his solos beautifully. He can also do the chatting, very nice guy and his style was just right for the spirit of G4. In the signing session after the concert, I told him ‘You are just like the 5th member of G5!’ which he was pleased to hear. After his solo playing, he just slipped into the back ground to accompany G4. I would be very happy if Oli goes with most of G4’s concert. The only thing is that he is very much of Jazz person. I am not much into Jazz. I don’t want G4 to sing too many Jazz. Another guest was Marry Jess. I was not sure how to take a Chinese Xfactor winner, but she turned out to be a really good and strong soprano. Despite the appearance of being British, she told me she lived in Nan-Chin and seems to speak fluent Chinese (I don’t speak any apart from a few phrase, so I can only tell she sounded convincing). Her solo piece was a song from China, Spring Ballet, though it did not sound too much of China apart from the language. The song was beautiful and Mary sang it beautifully. It really suited her voice.

G4 opened the concert with Your Song. The next was Because I Believe. It was one of my 2 favourites of Love Songs (another one is Go the Distance). Ben started the singing solo beautifully, and Jonathan was the next with much softer voice. Now they sound so different with each individual singing. Mike sang Merrill part of Love Me For a Reason. I really liked hearing Mike singing with more classical voice compared to Merrill’s poppy voice. Everytime Nick sang with deep voice, he made me smile.They started Can’t Help Falling in Love and My Way A Capella, which I llllloved! Then later, they were joined by the backings. Amazingly, they were still in tune with the backings! Thanks to pitch perfect Ben, I suppose. I hope they do more of A Capella. As well as all songs from Love Songs, they sang songs from the past. Some of them, we haven’t heard for many years…. Yellow, Creep, To Where You Are, You’re the Voice, Nessun Dorma, Pearl Fisher’s Duet- Au Fond Du Temple Saint. I am glad they included some classic songs as the new album does not have any. Jonathan told me ‘We sang Pearl Fisher for you’. They did a mini medley, which I was not too sure about. The balance of voices did not sound quite right. I struggled to make out what songs they were singing. The ‘last’ song was Barcelona. Mary sang with G4 beautifully. It was a great performance by all. They received standing ovation and we asked more. They come back to the stage very quickly – unlike classical concert where the performers keep us waiting and come back to get more applause and disappear again, then back and out.without giving us anymore. G4 performed Bo Rap.

I was not sure how many audiences they would get in Peterborough but it was packed and everybody seemed enjoying. There were some lively audience. As usual, G4, Oli and Mary offered to sign, chat and take photos after the concert. There was a long queue but everybody had a chance. Jonathan said he often stopped at Service station at Peterborough when he was travelling between Leeds and London. Please come back again, including Christmas. – We have a cathedral.

On this concert, there was no local choir.

I tried to find a suitable one to join in to sing with G4 but could not find one. The nearest Rock Choirs would have been at Huntingdon or Wisbech. Too far for me to go to rehearsals. Good job I didn’t join. Hope G4 choir kicks of locally.