Peter Andre @ Symphony Hall Birmingham, 8th March 2010
For those of you haven’t been living in a anti-mainstream cave for the last few years, Peter Andre needs little introduction. I want to clear one thing up from the start, nobody went to this gig to be in awe of Mr Andre’s musical wizardry, despite the desire to be regarded as a respected R&B artist. There’s simply no hiding from the publicity surrounding Peter Andre and Katie Price, anyone who’s ever caught even a glimpse of Andre’s reality show will know that Peter comes across as a fantastic father figure. As we arrived, we saw scores of teenage lads, mums, middle aged men, and (perhaps not as surprisingly) teenage girls. Most of which were donning some form of Andre merchandise.
The lights go down on Symphony Hall and, on queue, the girls scream. By “screaming”, I mean, every female fan smashing a thousand vocal high-hats, girls literally jumping at least one to two feet in the air with arms stretched to the ceiling, a silhouette appeared and… On came Peter’s brother, Micheal, to provide a short warm-up set. By no means were the crowd disappointed, mind. DJ Michael Andre provided a great little set prior to the big event.
Once again, the lights went down. We got kind of worried at this point after the last wave of excitement. A 60+ suit-donning, grey haired steward attempted to usher back the Team Andre army. The intro to Andre’s first (and perhaps most surprising) single from the most recent album, “Revelations” lifts the roof. A door placed centre staged (as in “Behind Closed Doors” — clever stuff) bursts open revealing a man in a white suit & aviators, with one finger pointed to the ceiling. It’s Andre (not Elvis).
After two songs, Andre returns to stage in an all red suit and some yellow, light up walking stick thing and begins his interaction with the die-hard fans. Two (brave) male dancers flip, skip and strip their way into the crowd to find a “volunteer” and are immediately mobbed by Andre Army. One girl is eventually retrieved from the crowd and awkwardly sits on a stool central stage whilst Andre sings to her and flirts on one knee. Her boyfriend watches helplessly, not sure whether to clap or cry. Andre then presented the girl with a bottle of Champagne, which hopefully means all is forgiven and we won’t see this situation come to life on Jeremy Kyle next week.
Throughout the night, there was a clear reference to the Michael Jackson school of entertainment (I’ve never been, so it might not actually exist). The show then dipped into a tribute to the King of Pop, and weirdly — it worked! Andre not only replicated a bunch of Jacko’s dance moves but also went on to cover “Human Nature” and “Man in the Mirror”. The pace then slowed down with Andre ending the gig with the same song he opened with, “Behind Closed Doors”, except this time, the song was stripped back to an acoustic version.
Approximately (we lost count) 5 costume changes later and an encore Andre took it back to the 90’s whispering “perhaps there were a few songs that I missed out”. Immediately — I fist pumped and though “INSANIA!!” but it turned out to be a previous number one, “Flava” which was followed up by covering Adamski/Seal — “Killer”.
Eventually, the climax came. Andre was still yet to play “Mysterious Girl” and Team Andre were going crazy. Andre briefly mocked the song. His band played the intro as Peter asked his dancers to sing the opening lines, one of which sang a Bob Marley track. Again, the banter was as clearly rehearsed as the dance moves but it didn’t matter. The moment Andre went into the chorus of “Mysterious Girl”, the resounding groan of “Woah-oh-uh-oh-uh-oh-oh-Mysterious Girl” from Team Andre could be heard for miles down Broad St.
By all means this wasn’t a musical masterpiece, but it was a show of nostalgia and family-friendly entertainment. I don’t think one “fan” left unsatisfied with Andre’s performance, although I was a tad MORTIFIED that “Insania” didn’t feature in the set list. It was an all round fun and light-hearted show with something for everyone.
Review — Chris Barber
Photos — Steve Gerrard
Fair play to reviewer and photographer alike for enduring what must have been a tedious evening of bland un-tertainment.
Musically he bores me but I met Pete a few years ago and have to say hes a really top chap,lot nicer then Katie,she didn’t impress me at all,but hes got his audience and he plays them very well