Blue showed that they're ageing like a fine wine as they delivered a slick and stylish performance in Newcastle on Tuesday night, to round off their Heart and Soul tour.
It's hard to believe, but more than 20 years have passed since Antony, Duncan, Lee and Simon first made a serious dent in the charts with their anthemic debut single All Rise. And, while we've all moved on from the playing Snake on our our Nokia 3210 days of the early 00s, there is still a lot of love out there for Blue and the songs that fans lapped up two decades ago still sound as fresh as ever.
It was a slight disservice to the lads that there wasn't a larger crowd at the Utilita Arena to see Blue in action, with a visibly smaller audience than you'd probably expect for a group that have number 1 singles and albums under their belt. After some fantastic tinkling over the ivories from massively talented pianist Okiem ramped up the drama and anticipation in the room, Blue went for one of their chart toppers to open proceedings. Starting your setlist off with a ballad could be viewed as something of a risky move, but when that ballad happens to be Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word, there is no such issue.
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From the get-go, Blue delivered a vocally assured performance, as well as showing they can still throw some shapes with the best of them. Given that the tour is named after their new album of the same name, it would have been odd for Blue not to include some of its finest moments in their set, with underrated summer single Haven't Found You Yet, a great slice of pop music, while Ultraviolet, with its Ibiza drenched vibes, could have easily been a smash hit for Taio Cruz in 2009.
And, no slight on the other three's talents, because Blue just wouldn't be Blue without all four of them, Lee Ryan's top notes are still totally breath-taking, with Breathe Easy a goosebump inducing tour de force.
While the newer material certainly didn't seem out of place on the night, it was the tracks that fans really came for that saw the atmosphere build and build. U Make Me Wanna is still very much a tune, as are Curtain Falls and Bubblin. Too Close gave Blue their first number 1 in the summer of 2001 and a cameo from support act Megan McKenna on the song helped it make even more of a impact.
And she was back on stage, along with special guests B*Witched, who themselves got the party going earlier on in the night, with a set that started with Rollercoaster and ended with C'est La Vie, for a bit of a stage invasion which resulted in a mass rendition of Fly By.
When most people think of Blue, they think of All Rise and a glance at the reactions and enthusiasm of those around me emphasised the fact that it should be regarded as one of the best pop songs of the last few decades. It was however a real shame that there was no place for If You Come Back on the setlist, as that is another of the band's tracks that has stood the test of time, making it a rather glaring omission.
The night ended with a slowed down version of One Love, bringing the curtain on a gig that went by all too quickly. There aren't too many boybands around these days so getting to see one who still know how to put on a great show was made for a cracking night.
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