GARY BARLOW: SONGBOOK TOUR 2025

Let’s start at the very beginning. In my thirty odd years of reviewing live entertainment I have never ever seen a support act hold an audience in their hands as I did last night. In front of a huge red curtain sat a small electric piano, virtually no space around it and just a simple light to illuminate it. Out came a young man dressed in black as from off stage his name was announced, Brad Kella. It took only a moment for the capacity crowd to realise that this self effacing scouser was the winner of Channel 4’s The Piano in 2024. He spoke beautifully, played his own compositions and the crowd loved every moment and watched in silence. And it was a charming and perfect support act for what was to follow.

I saw Take That live at the O2 many years ago and was impressed by their slick and lavish show. Enough to make me go to see Mr Barlow solo? Would he stage something quite so extravagant or was this Gary stripped back?

Well it was nowhere near as lavish a production for sure, but it certainly wasn’t stripped back. The red curtain was swept away to reveal a tiered platform in front of a wall of lights framed by art deco style drapery. And on it a large band, drums, keyboards, horn section, guitars and two singers, and at the front, but not for long, Gary himself dressed in black sequins. He soon took his place at a piano.

The band were brilliant, the sounds was full on and the whole had an air of a Las Vegas show. In fact the first section of the show had them belting out classic Barlow songs in a swing style, sometimes so much so that his well formed melodies were somewhat lost in that barrage of sound. It was good yes, but at points I would have liked a little more clarity.

And clarity came later in the set when he politely asked the audience, who had at the front been on their feet from the opening bars, to sit down for a while. Then we got to hear what he is best at, and that is penning very good pop ballads. Who would have thought back then that the jelly romping boy band front man was the creator of so many of their hits. He was only 15 when he wrote A Million Love Songs, and the hits kept coming, not just then but last night.

At 54 his voice is better than ever, and he has the energy to deliver a set around two hours long, even at one point re-creating one of the boys’ dance routines. On the subject of danc,e hats off to that incredible brass section for their terpsichorial efforts, those boys gave it their all.

It was a nice touch to see that the almost all of the band came to the front of the stage to play, it had a party feel and they were clearly all having a very good time, as were we.

I could list the whole set list, but after a few songs I stopped making notes and simply looked and listened. If you want to know what he played you can find it online, it was hit after hit, a few less familiar more recent numbers but what he proved was that he can compose a great song, from delicate ballads to pounding pop, and he does each so well.

In truth the full on swing part of the set, whilst excellently executed, was less appealing than the pure pop and gentler moments of the gig, but my word, how that audience of fans loved it all.

Andrew Kay

15 May

The Brighton Centre

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