Wow! What a gig! Phenomenal!

After a support band for 20 mins (whose name I didn’t catch) he came onstage at 8.30pm, left at 10.20pm, then the encore lasted until 10.50pm – well worth £50 a ticket, I thought…

Starting with Reason To Believe from the latest album, he performed LOADS of songs from his Commodore days up to present day, including Easy (like a Sunday Morning); Hello; Penny Lover; Still; Destiny; All Night Long and Dancing on the Ceiling to name but a few. Alternating between himself, solo, on the piano and with the backing of his band, he delivered a polished and professional performance.

He constantly talked to the audience between songs and had them eating out of the palm of his hand… I didn’t mind this as I was one of them! When he sang Ballerina Girl (which is one of my all-time favourites), the emotion was too much and I blubbed through it. 😉 Pitch-perfect and strong delivery – every song had the audience buzzing, with plenty of opportunities to dance. We did not leave dissapointed – no wonder it was sold out… and having sold out, he’s now performing an extra date on 26th May.

so tempted…

Thoroughly enjoyed this fresh and talented cast – including the delightful Wayne Sleep (not doing badly at 58 and still managing to do ‘the splits’!) cast in the role of the lecherous ‘Uncle Willy’. It was less like the movie than I was expecting, so I felt the loss of missing songs such as Now You Has Jazz; Mind If I Make Love To You and High Society Calypso – however, this stage-version presented a light-hearted show with some catchy tunes.

Professional shows are usually noted for their fabulous sets but I did feel that this show was slightly lacking… in that the set was permanent (i.e. there was one!) – nothing moved. Also, not all of the cast can get away with an ‘American accent’ (Hugh Laurie they are not!) so about a third of the way through the performance it began to grate. Perhaps that was just me, though – having spoken to others since who didn’t notice, perhaps it is just me! Having said that, I really did enjoy the show and the principals were well cast, particularly Wayne Sleep and Paul Robinson (as ‘Mike Connor’).

High Society is at the Theatre Royal, Newcastle, until 24th March 2007.

Yes, this is late to report back on but I did literally drag myself out of my sick bed to attend this gig last week…and even though I coughed all the way through it – I was DETERMINED. Toto have been around 30 years but I will never get the chance to see them again.

A mix of old material (including the obvious classics – Africa, Rosanna, Hold the Line and I’ll Be Over You) as well as songs from the new album Falling In Between, which their first studio record since 1999. Most notably, I liked the song Bottom of Your Soul, a rhythmic, pulsing, incantation which is likely to please the diehard 70’s/80’s fans of old as well as their newer listeners. Toto came onstage at 7.45pm and went off at 10.15pm – no interval – amazing!

If you’re interested, it’s worth checking the very short intro here live site – to see how they look and sound live. 🙂