Do you have a Mayor in Nottingham? - I'm having a 'mare

At last the time came for the day I have been waiting for since March. Will Young at the Nottingham Arena.
Ange & Debz went last year but I couldn't afford it, so this year I told them I was coming even if I had to pay for the tickets £1 a week.

When we got into Notts, the first thing we wanted to do was go eat. The only place we could find near to the Arena was Subway though and I HATE Subway. OK so the food is good and it is a lot healthier option than McDonalds or Burger King but there is so many questions and I get all flustered and don't know how to answer (that's if I can even hear what they are saying). We needed to eat though so I went along with it.
I took ages choosing something simple so that I wouldn't be bombarded with questions and when It was my turn I told him what I wanted and the first thing he said was "Which bread would you like?" ARGH!! I don't know. How do I know which one to choose. Surely if someone doesn't express a preference then you just give them plain? Then do I want single or double cheese??? What Salad? Sauce? Toasted or Microwaved? Drink? Free cookie? Which cookie? White chocolate or dark? My nerves were frazzled by the time I sat down.

After food we went to the pub across the road for a few drinks. As you might have guessed, this being the nearest pub to the arena - It was full of other fans and there was nowhere to sit down. It got even more packed when it started to rain and everyone who was sat outside came running in.
Luckily the rain passed and at about 7.30pm we decided to walk round to the arena and check out the support act.

When we got inside something struck me about the Will Young audience. Some of you might recognise this crowd. There were lots of families, married couples and women over the age of 30. Of course there were teen girls too but I think they were highly out-numbered. Nothing wrong with this of course and Will obviously has no objection nor do his management or record company...

We went and had a look at the merchandise. Of course if we didn't have to save our money for the Taxi journey home, we may have been tempted but even a keyring was £5. Ange was rather taken with the WY mugs but at £9 a time it was a bit steep. I really loved the black shopping bag with the tour logo on but it is a hell of a lot of money. We didn't even get a tour program as they were £15! There were some great t-shirts for this tour and there was even a tea-towel with an image on from Spin to win that I would have loved.

We went to take our seats. I couldn't believe how close we were. We were definitely going to get a good view.

"I wrote this in my kitchen"

The support act was a woman called Anna Krantz. She was a singer/songwriter who I decided was the female equivalent of James Fox. Very MOR Easy listening style. I don't think Ange was too impressed with her but I thought she was OK. They were selling her CDs along with the WY merch and at the end of her set she announced that she was doing a signing in the foyer but I can't imagine that many people would go up to meet her as they wouldn't want to miss Will. The women behind me had gone off to the loo when she finished but had to come running back when Will came on.



"It's a way to pay the bills
But I need to get my thrills"

When Will first appeared on stage I went all weak at the knees and quite breathless. The dancers appaeared first from the front of the stage. They were dressed as flight attendants and Will followed dressed as pilot.



Now you would think that with my last 3 years of Griffin gigs reports I would be able to bring you a good concise report with set list etc...but it all went by in such a blur that I can't remember the order of things or exactly what Will said.
I do know he was extremely good at playing the crowd. Some artists would see it as heckling but Will revelled in the shouts from the audience. Every time someone screamed "I love you Will" he would shout back "I love you too" and you know? I honestly believe he meant it. He seemed so humble up there. He made a remark about being just a little man and a bit of a nerd.
He is very quick witted too. Someone near to us shouted out "Show us your arse!" he replied with "You can see my arse, It's there"

The first set change came for the song All I want. He came out with a sexy pair of jodhpurs and a riding jacket. The trousers didn't leave anything to the imagination I can tell you. The funny thing is...He knew that. He loved shaking his little tush and thrusting his groin to tease his army of fans.

The next set/costume change came for All-time love. I think this was one of my fave numbers of the night. 3 huge black boxes appeared on-stage and as the music started they slowly opened to reveal Will dressed as a tin soldier slowly turning round as if he were in a music box. There was a Ballerina in each of the other boxes. ATL actually made me cry. My other fave was Spin to win. On the backdrop, comedy footage was played of Will playing the host of a 70's game show called Spin to win. On stage he had the backing singers at Game show style podiums and he and the dancers all wore 70's costumes and big 70s hair.
The dance routines were Awesome. Will certainly has the moves to go along with his gorgeous voice and as far as I could see it was all perfect. Will obviously loves his dancers and has great respect for them. Some artists just treat the dancers as props but he obviously expects it all to be like one big happy family on tour.

"I'm just a little person and a bit of a nerd really"

After Spin to win and then Who am I, it was time for a little acoustic session. There was a lot of banter at this point. Will introduced his singers and told the crowd that one of them (Brendan) was from Nottingham and had been doing toursof Notts for the crew that day. They then sang Stronger and Fridays child, I had forgotten how much I love that song and wish I could find my copy of the album to play it again.

The whole thing was over 2 hours long. There were lots of set changes and costume changes and huge dance routines. He sang the whole of the Keep on Album and a few tracks from Friday's Child and of course he had to do Light my fire. I was a bit disappointed that he hadn't done his cover of Don't cha from Jo Whiley's Live lounge earlier in the year but I guess that there was enough in there already.

When the curtains went down and everyone disappeared off-stage I realised he hadn't done Switch it on so that must be the encore...sure enough he appeared a few minuted later. In a fantastic outfit of very tight white trousers and black shirt. This was the best dance routine of the evening - a final bit of thrusting and butt wiggling to send the audience home happy.
When the curtains went down for the final time I was hot and sticky and exhausted. It was almost 11pm and as we had missed our last train at 9.41pm and our last bus at 10.30pm we had to settle for paying £25 for a cab all the way home. It was worth it though as it was a very comfy taxi and the journey was way better than the bus or train would have been.

I just want to say thanks to Ange for getting the tickets and Thanks of course to Mr Will Young for a fantastic night out - As Ange said, Can't wait for Next year!!!!