Babies Go Competition Winner Reports From Wembley

We had a little competition last month here at Babies Go with the prize of a pair of tickets to Take That's Wembley gig on July 4th. The lucky winner was Carolyn from Southampton and she's been good enough to send us a report of the gig.

My husband and I arrived at Wembley just after 5pm and our hearts dropped as we saw the queues to get into the stadium. Luckily we walked round the stadium to our gate and we were able to walk straight in without queuing! Our entrance brought us into the stadium at the side of the stage and if we had wanted to we would have been able to stand by the barriers at the front of the stage. Having seen the concert in Sunderland at the end of May (yes, sorry everyone I have now seen the concert twice!), we knew that 70% of the show was at the other end of the stage so moved to a better position (although I was a little disappointed as I could have got so close to Robbie *weep*).
The Pet Shop Boys came on stage around 7.15 and played all the classic Pet Shop Boys hits - West End Girls, Go West, It's a Sin (and also a couple of not so well known ones). They were quite a good warm up act for Take That really, especially when you looked at the median age of the crowd!!
An announcement went out around 8.15 to say that Take That would be on stage in approx 10mins, and as luck would have it, I was standing in a queue for the toilets. The only issue with having all these concerts in Football Stadiums is that they don't usually need lots of women's toilets, they were a lot stricter in Wembley and wouldn't let the women use the men's as I experienced in Sunderland!! But I got back in time anyhow!
The "grand" entrance very low key , Mark, Jason, Howard and Gary walked on stage to a huge cheer from the crowd and launched into Rule the World, followed by Greatest Day (with bursts of yellow ticker tape), Hold Up a Light (with fire swinging dancers) and then Patience. They then disappeared below the stage, which became an Alice in Wonderland type fantasy forest with a huge waddling caterpillar, dancing butterflies and bubbles for a rousing rendition of Shine. The 4 of them then ran back to the stage, and, as if by magic jumped "into" the screen and appeared on it with Robbie, singing and dancing along to a Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club parody. This then turned into a clip of Robbie by himself, and you could feel the hysteria in the air. Robbie then made his entrance by jumping out of the screen onto the stage accompanied by flames and fireworks.....to the biggest cheers of the night. He launched into all his best songs....Let Me Entertain You, Rock DJ, Feel, Come Undone and of course Angels. Yes, as reported in all the papers, his language was a little choice, but all in all he put on such a show. It was interesting to see how much more confident, some would say cocky, he had got since we saw him in Sunderland. Was it the Robbie Williams show as some people had been saying? Well for this part of the concert, yes it was, and it was brilliant! The "re-united" 5 then took to the stage to sing The Flood, with a performance that included Robbie abseiling from the top scaffolding. This was followed by SOS, Underground Machine and a fantastic version of Kidz, which turned into a dance off between Howard and Jason.... I'm sure plenty of 20 year olds would kill for the bodies and fitness of those two 40 years olds!! There was then a medley of really old songs (Million Love Songs/Babe/Everything Changes) and Back for Good. It then moved onto Love Love, which in Sunderland had been performed on the moving giant robot, but technical issues must have prevailed as it was performed on the stage, but this song sounds fantastic that loud in a stadium. So from Love Love, to Never Forget, to the Robbie song, No Regrets, dancing and getting down to Relight My Fire and then ending on Eight Letters, which I think was a bit of an anti-climax and the only disappointing part of the show.
Overall though the concert was fantastic. Was it as good as the Circus? Difficult to say, as the theme of Progress wasn't so strong, but they certainly put on one hell of a show and thanks to Babies Go....I got to experience it for a second time!! Thank You!!!

So there we are. Thanks to everyone who entered the competition, we're so glad that the winner had such a great time at the concert.

http://www.babies-go.co.uk

Waaah! More London bring-a-baby concerts

We read this at the weekend and thought it would be worth passing along...

from Time Out:

By Jonathan Lennie

Something weird is happening. I am in the stalls of Wigmore Hall enjoying the aeolian strains of a wind trio, while my companion is chewing his hand and dribbling on my trousers; meanwhile, the person in front is standing backwards in their seat and staring at me intently. And if that wasn't disconcerting enough, a chorus of wailing is gathering momentum across the room. And never mind the clapping between movements, here there is constant movement, including one audience member who is enjoying an impromptu promenade, standing at the side of the stage eating a biscuit.

The reason for this unusual behaviour might be explained by the fact that half the audience is under one year old. We are at the sporadic 'For Crying Out Loud' concert series - my son, Reuben, making his first foray into the concert hall. Well, he is five months old and I didn't want to leave it too long.

The series, run by Wigmore Hall, is part of its education programme. And what a great idea! For while there are regular family concerts and activity workshops for infants across the city, there are few opportunities for parents with babies to attend live classical music events. And this is definitely one for the parents - today there are about 100 of them, mostly mums, some accompanied by dads, and a handful of grandparents.

Now I understand why, on entering the building with half an hour to kick-off, the ushers looked so nervous. For 15 minutes later the onslaught began, as mothers stormed the foyer with their offspring in prams and slings, and bags bulging with baby accoutrement.

The musicians today are the Fortuna Trio, whose combination of flute, clarinet and bassoon is clearly conducive to small ears as there is a collective hush as they open with a Mozart divertimento. However, despite the wonderful sounds being created on stage, Reuben doesn't seem to notice, being far more interested in examining his feet, which have only recently come into his purview. But such distractions are welcome and he remains quiet until halfway through an arrangement of Bach's 'Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring', when a junior critic on stage right registers his displeasure (some people don't like Bach being messed about with); his cries are met by another on the other side, creating a Doppler effect, which sets the rest of the room off, including Reuben. read more......

www.babies-go.co.uk