Scarborough - The Futurist ~ 08/04/2007

When we set off to Scarborough we were fairlz sure to be there very, very early. In theory it should be only a 2 hours drive maximum. Yeah, right! We ended up in a massive traffic jam and did take 1,5 hours for basically 5 miles. Okay, so it was a wonderful sunny day, Easter Sunday, but still.... When we finallly arrived in Scarborough we could not belive our eyes. We have been there in June and that was summer ... this was early April and you literally could not move, because it was so crowded ... people, cars, dogs ... We needed a further 30 minutes to get the car parked.

With all these delays we arrived at the stage at the stage door at roughly 2 pm. we had a great time waiting for him. And after two hours we saw the coach advancing slowly. Instead of dropping Michael of at the stage door he passed us all. We thought it would go down to the end of the street and turn at the roundabout. This would have taken ages before he'd actually get there, so we chatted on. But all of a sudden there was a massive commotion as he stood only a few feet away from us. What had happened was: Michael felt he wanted to have a walk on the beach and so he turned up all unexpected. He took his time posing for photos and seemed to be in a very fine mood. He still did not sound 100 %, but ever so much better than before.

After the stage door we were searching for a nice pub, instead of the rather dreadful eating experience we had at the previous tour. The pub we ended up in (King Richard III) was lovely. We had a fantastic pre-concert mad time with Pat, Stella and Linda. You girls are great and you know that.

From what we saw Michael wore a black suit with grey pin-stripes, dark grey striped tie and a black shirt. We will get back to that suit in the Northampton review.

While he got an amazing reception there were dozens of flashlights going on all the time. So he stopped asking everyone not to use their flash cameras, because it would drive everyone on the stage mental! And if we saw someone next to us using a flash we should - he gestured hitting and kicking - politely tell them not to.

Telling the audience he was 34 earned him the usual sceptical laugh to which he said "What? Someone got a problem with this mathematical equasion (sp?)? It makes you 16 when you bought it." (His first album)

He received a standing ovation for "This is the moment" and the Kismet songs (aka: Strangers in Paradise and This is my beloved). "High flying adored" was back and throughout the the whole concert he seemed relaxed and confident about the big notes which was a joy to watch.

When he told us he was going to grow a beard and that he knows it will look pathetic, he moaned he wanted to be Brian Blessed who has this fantastic beard. He also jealously mentioned Howard Keel's great moustache.

When he was all mean about the musicians and everyone goes "Awww" he finally admitted that "off all the musicians I have ever worked with these are definitely 12 of them!" LOL "They will play this next one really bad now.... No change then."

"Home" and "A house is not a home" were again not included in the set list. We assume they had to go as otherwise it's simply too much for his voice.

The audience really loved "Crazy" and he grinned and said "When I heard the song I wondered if we dared. And it seems we've got awaz with it. Well no one sued yet."

As the tour continues the manager of the Savoy hotel gets ever so much more stage time. This time he actually told Michael and his showbiz chums to "shut up".

He now acts the complete scene out and continues doing so during the whole "Rehab". It's like a musical scene in the middle of a concert.

At the very end of the concert they even switched on the lights in the circle so Michael could see everyone standing and cheering. He said he will never forget where he was on Easter Sunday 2007 ... nor shall we!