Will & Gareth Tour - 2002
Will`s Set-list
Ain't No Sunshine
Sweetest Feeling
Don't Let Me Down
Ticket To Love
It Takes Two (with Zoe)
Over You
You And I
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Light My Fire
Evergreen
The Long And Winding Road
Lets Stay Together (with Gareth & Zoe)
'staggeringly good and worth the wait' - Dotmusic.com
'for charisma, Will Young is the main man'- Manchester Evening News
'mature and assured' - Telegraph
'the true star of the show was Will Young' - Channel 4 (Teletext)
'Will is the bestest and I loves him' - Regina Benjamin
Dotmusic (Andy Strickland)
More pierced navels than a Skin 2 convention, more bare midriff than Johnny Vegas in the bath and more embarrassed looking dads than down your local Top Shop at Xmas - it can only be the Will and Gareth show. SCREAM
And if we were ever in doubt that these boys owe it all to television, the video montage of today's current pop hunks that is shown seven times tonight on the giant screens, confirms it. Once upon a time the excitement at being just an hour away from seeing your 'idols' in the flesh would gnaw at your guts as you stared hopefully at that black stage and the teasing, flickering torchlight of roadies. Now you sit back, watch the main attraction on TV until they appear, smaller and less impressively in front of you at the other end of a giant hangar. So you keep watching the screen. SCREAM.
Zoe Birkett comes on, her she-male hair do and wobbly tum the perfect setting for her giant karaoke act - all alone on that huge stage with a lighting set which dotmusic saw at a Gene gig two weeks ago. SCREAM. Then a 20 minute break to screen the video again and we're off.
Gareth somersaults over a set from Jailhouse Rock (the Elvis theme is strong tonight as his record company has just released a Greatest Hits collection from the King and Gareth is their best hope of flogging the thing to anyone under fifty). He kicks into 'The Way You Make Me Feel' and 'Sentimental'. Good band. Strangely, Gareth's spoken song intros are all pre-recorded and he communicates with us by way of a gag whereby his phone text messages are displayed on the screens. "U R GORGEOUS", "I 8 WILL" that kind of thing. Presumably this is to bypass any problems with that stammer, but it's weird to think he can't talk to us - just the occasional wave. Thin end of the wedge if you ask me - soon he'll have a pet chimp, live in a bubble and have his hair gel surgically enhanced.
On through 'Anyone Of Us' - which gets the navel piercings jiggling and then a classic comedy moment. During 'It Ain't Obvious', his band leader and ace guitarist launches into a gonzo-metal solo and Gareth seeks to boost the volume further by holding his microphone a few inches from the guitar...an electric guitar! You'd get kicked out of Fame Academy for that faux pas.
Bring me the head of the sicko record company pervert that thinks it's funny to get kids to record the fetid corpse that is 'Unchained Melody'. Is it compulsory now? Mawkish and old-fashioned pop reworkings of this 'classic' are totally pointless. It's like forcing any young rock band that gets a deal to record 'Stairway To Heaven'. Pointless - except it sells by the truckload.
Then Gareth's Elvis fixation goes mental with a jump-suited medley that ends with the boy handing out sweat-soaked hankies. My advice - stay off the burgers and never go to the toilet when you feel unwell, Gaz.
Two hours in now and my eight-year-old companion isn't the only one fast asleep. The place is littered with dozing kids who miss Will Young's self-effacing entrance. Will's voice is amazing. Cranked up to eleven on 'Ain't No Sunshine', compared with the recorded version, you can see why the judges loved him. If only he could relax into the role instead of sounding like a posh vicar chatting to old ladies at a church fete whenever he speaks.
'Sweetest Feeling' shows off the voice to great effect before Zoe and her hair totter back on for a bizarre 'It Takes Two' which features some rather misplaced dirty dancing but clears the air for tonight's most spine chilling moment and another example of how the recorded Will is only half the story. When he hits the Barry-esque chorus of 'You And I' and those strings swoop and soar, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up - staggeringly good and worth the wait.
Then we're back to familiar territory - a gospel tinged 'Signed Sealed Delivered, I'm Yours' and the obligatory 'Light My Fire’, complete with ...you guessed it, fire shooting up all over the stage. A giant staircase descends from the ceiling and the screams intensify as Will walks across into the crowd - yes, just like the Stones did on their last tour - for the dull 'Evergreen'. Gareth joins Will and the pair show off with a forced 'The Long And Winding Road' before Zoe makes it a threesome (God, what a thought!) for the closing 'Let's Stay Together'. Three long hours, but Will's voice is the winner. See, real life is just like the telly after all.
Manchester Evening News - Source
When the Pop Idol tour first hit the Arena, the phenomenon was at its brightest. The public was crazy for Will and Gareth, but had enough patience to sit through nearly-men like Korben and Aaron.
Fast-forward just a few months and the headlines are full of Gareth Gates "losing" his Pepsi sponsorship deal, while the Hear'Say split sits as a cautionary tale of fame found too soon. Last night, there was no mention of Pop Idol and it's obvious that with Will and Gareth both having albums out, this is their chance to go it alone.
But the hysteria for the stars has not faded. Zoe Birkett gamely rolls through her big band standards reminding us that in vocal terms, she was the true winner, but the crowds won't be satisfied until they've seen one man.
Gareth Gates takes the stage in a brown leather jacket and rocks his way through Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel. The dancers (bizarrely trapped in a long cage) recall the original teen idols of the fifties. Making light of the stutter, he addresses us through messages flashed on the big screens. And while Anyone Of Us is still his most memorable original song, the highlight comes when he returns the stage clad in a Vegas-period Elvis for his show stealing cover of Suspicious Minds.
For charisma, Will Young is the main man. The attention on Gareth makes it hard to remember that Will actually won Pop Idol, but his soaring, soulful vocals remind you in seconds. In Beckham highlights and fashionably distressed jeans, he rolls through covers of Ain't No Sunshine and (I Get The) Sweetest Feeling before bravely airing his gospel direction on forthcoming single You And I. Will looks like a man loving every minute of his hour of fame, but totally genuine with it. The show's highlight comes with Zoë’s return for a spirited duet on It Takes Two. Will climaxes with Evergreen while an arena-length gantry descends and Gareth joins him at the other bottom stage for their schmaltz-ridden encore, The Long And Winding Road.
For all the talk of pop rivals, there seems genuine affection between the pair, and when Zoe returns once more for a final Let's Stay Together, there's more camaraderie between this threesome than you ever saw with Hear'Say - and they were in the same group.
Daily Telegraph - Source
One day Pop Idol winner Will Young will be granted permission to tour alone. For now, however, he resides at the top of a bill co-staring the show's runners-up, one of whom happens to be Gareth Gates. If Will is gnashing his teeth at having to share the limelight, he has so far proved too professional to show it. His teen nemesis Gareth, meanwhile, appears too gormless to notice, and their overwhelmingly female, teenage audience are too in love with both to care.
As is standard procedure for pop megastars these days, Gareth arrived on stage via some sort of hydraulic lift, from which he jumped and abseiled through thin air to safety. Try as he might, he couldn't avoid looking like a particularly uncomfortable daddy longlegs until he reached the floor and launched into the first of many cover versions, Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel.
The crowd in the sold-out Wembley Arena, who had been screaming since the doors opened, raised their volume almost higher than the music, which kept up a tinnily radio-friendly rate all evening. Gates voice simply couldn't keep pace with his bored looking backing singers. An insipid rendition of Yesterday followed, with Gates chop sticking away on a grand piano, before he changed into the diamond-studded jumpsuit of his dreams for a comically faithful version of Elvis's Suspicious Minds complete with windmill arms. His pre-recorded introductions thanked us for letting him 'live his dream'. But for how long?
If Gareth was for the kids, Will gave his all for the mums in the house. His evident love of Motown and old school soul expressed itself in a classy selection of, yes, cover versions, beginning with Bill Withers' Ain’t No Sunshine. Unlike Gates however, Young clearly had a hand in the presentation and arrangement of his set, giving a performance so mature and assured by comparison that it made the double bill seem a faintly ridiculous concept. The self-written Over You and You & I, unlike Gates forgettable original slush, carried at least a whiff of Young's plummy charm.
Ending his solo set, he congratulated us on our taste after cheekily mishearing the crowd's hysterical requests for Light My Fire as 'Oh! Signed, Sealed and Delivered by Stevie Wonder? Super!' The vocal acrobatics he displayed on Pop Idol, however, were hidden away for safe keeping, presumably for the day he finally rests himself from the all-singing variety triple-bill. He's the one to watch.
Channel 4 Club 140
It’s less than 8 months since Will Young was crowned Pop Idol winner, yet last weekend he played to a packed at London’s Docklands Arena. He was joined by his old pop idol chums Gareth Gates and Zoe Birkett, who each performed their own material, joined him. Club went along to see if these reality TV singers look set to go the distance. Or will it be a case of Hear’Say all over again.
Pop Idol runner –up Zoe kicked off the concert by belting out a series of up-tempo dance numbers and gyrating in tight jeans and a denim crop-top. She then retreated from the stage to make way for the boys, who both performed tracks from their new albums.
Will looked like he had been on stage forever, with an assured air as he thrilled the audience with his fab forthcoming single Over You. At times Gareth Gates looked a little out of his depth on stage at London’s Docklands arena, when he struggled with his vocals. But he had the lion share of the girl fans in the audience – judging by the banners and the screams when he wiggled to his current hit Suspicious Minds. His costumed varied from trademark leather and denim to a dashing black suit for his duet with Will.
Gareth was obviously worried that his stammering problem would ruin the flow of the gig on his tour with pop idol bud’s Will Young and Zoe Birkett. At London’s Docklands Arena on the weekend pre-recorded messages linked his numbers, which seemed really weird! But the crowd were forgiving and loved it when cameras zoomed in on Gareth’s phone to display more messages.
But the true star of the show was Will Young who proved a versatile performer – he positively smouldered on Light My Fire, but he and Gareth had the crowd swooning on Long and Winding Road. Clubs favourites were Ticket to Love, made with legend Burt Bacharach and Over to You, set to be Will’s new single. His first album is From Now On is out this week and he’s reportedly made £1 million from tickets sales. No wonder he was smiling. The Will, Gareth and Zoe show ended with the trio singing Al Green’s “Let’s stay together”. The boys were smart in their funky black suits, while Zoe looked gorgeous in a simple white dress.
The highlight of the night was when a walkway was lowered across the arena and the trio walked along it, just inches from the exited audience. All in all a great show .
Ain't No Sunshine
Sweetest Feeling
Don't Let Me Down
Ticket To Love
It Takes Two (with Zoe)
Over You
You And I
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Light My Fire
Evergreen
The Long And Winding Road
Lets Stay Together (with Gareth & Zoe)
'staggeringly good and worth the wait' - Dotmusic.com
'for charisma, Will Young is the main man'- Manchester Evening News
'mature and assured' - Telegraph
'the true star of the show was Will Young' - Channel 4 (Teletext)
'Will is the bestest and I loves him' - Regina Benjamin
Dotmusic (Andy Strickland)
More pierced navels than a Skin 2 convention, more bare midriff than Johnny Vegas in the bath and more embarrassed looking dads than down your local Top Shop at Xmas - it can only be the Will and Gareth show. SCREAM
And if we were ever in doubt that these boys owe it all to television, the video montage of today's current pop hunks that is shown seven times tonight on the giant screens, confirms it. Once upon a time the excitement at being just an hour away from seeing your 'idols' in the flesh would gnaw at your guts as you stared hopefully at that black stage and the teasing, flickering torchlight of roadies. Now you sit back, watch the main attraction on TV until they appear, smaller and less impressively in front of you at the other end of a giant hangar. So you keep watching the screen. SCREAM.
Zoe Birkett comes on, her she-male hair do and wobbly tum the perfect setting for her giant karaoke act - all alone on that huge stage with a lighting set which dotmusic saw at a Gene gig two weeks ago. SCREAM. Then a 20 minute break to screen the video again and we're off.
Gareth somersaults over a set from Jailhouse Rock (the Elvis theme is strong tonight as his record company has just released a Greatest Hits collection from the King and Gareth is their best hope of flogging the thing to anyone under fifty). He kicks into 'The Way You Make Me Feel' and 'Sentimental'. Good band. Strangely, Gareth's spoken song intros are all pre-recorded and he communicates with us by way of a gag whereby his phone text messages are displayed on the screens. "U R GORGEOUS", "I 8 WILL" that kind of thing. Presumably this is to bypass any problems with that stammer, but it's weird to think he can't talk to us - just the occasional wave. Thin end of the wedge if you ask me - soon he'll have a pet chimp, live in a bubble and have his hair gel surgically enhanced.
On through 'Anyone Of Us' - which gets the navel piercings jiggling and then a classic comedy moment. During 'It Ain't Obvious', his band leader and ace guitarist launches into a gonzo-metal solo and Gareth seeks to boost the volume further by holding his microphone a few inches from the guitar...an electric guitar! You'd get kicked out of Fame Academy for that faux pas.
Bring me the head of the sicko record company pervert that thinks it's funny to get kids to record the fetid corpse that is 'Unchained Melody'. Is it compulsory now? Mawkish and old-fashioned pop reworkings of this 'classic' are totally pointless. It's like forcing any young rock band that gets a deal to record 'Stairway To Heaven'. Pointless - except it sells by the truckload.
Then Gareth's Elvis fixation goes mental with a jump-suited medley that ends with the boy handing out sweat-soaked hankies. My advice - stay off the burgers and never go to the toilet when you feel unwell, Gaz.
Two hours in now and my eight-year-old companion isn't the only one fast asleep. The place is littered with dozing kids who miss Will Young's self-effacing entrance. Will's voice is amazing. Cranked up to eleven on 'Ain't No Sunshine', compared with the recorded version, you can see why the judges loved him. If only he could relax into the role instead of sounding like a posh vicar chatting to old ladies at a church fete whenever he speaks.
'Sweetest Feeling' shows off the voice to great effect before Zoe and her hair totter back on for a bizarre 'It Takes Two' which features some rather misplaced dirty dancing but clears the air for tonight's most spine chilling moment and another example of how the recorded Will is only half the story. When he hits the Barry-esque chorus of 'You And I' and those strings swoop and soar, the hairs on the back of your neck stand up - staggeringly good and worth the wait.
Then we're back to familiar territory - a gospel tinged 'Signed Sealed Delivered, I'm Yours' and the obligatory 'Light My Fire’, complete with ...you guessed it, fire shooting up all over the stage. A giant staircase descends from the ceiling and the screams intensify as Will walks across into the crowd - yes, just like the Stones did on their last tour - for the dull 'Evergreen'. Gareth joins Will and the pair show off with a forced 'The Long And Winding Road' before Zoe makes it a threesome (God, what a thought!) for the closing 'Let's Stay Together'. Three long hours, but Will's voice is the winner. See, real life is just like the telly after all.
Manchester Evening News - Source
When the Pop Idol tour first hit the Arena, the phenomenon was at its brightest. The public was crazy for Will and Gareth, but had enough patience to sit through nearly-men like Korben and Aaron.
Fast-forward just a few months and the headlines are full of Gareth Gates "losing" his Pepsi sponsorship deal, while the Hear'Say split sits as a cautionary tale of fame found too soon. Last night, there was no mention of Pop Idol and it's obvious that with Will and Gareth both having albums out, this is their chance to go it alone.
But the hysteria for the stars has not faded. Zoe Birkett gamely rolls through her big band standards reminding us that in vocal terms, she was the true winner, but the crowds won't be satisfied until they've seen one man.
Gareth Gates takes the stage in a brown leather jacket and rocks his way through Michael Jackson's The Way You Make Me Feel. The dancers (bizarrely trapped in a long cage) recall the original teen idols of the fifties. Making light of the stutter, he addresses us through messages flashed on the big screens. And while Anyone Of Us is still his most memorable original song, the highlight comes when he returns the stage clad in a Vegas-period Elvis for his show stealing cover of Suspicious Minds.
For charisma, Will Young is the main man. The attention on Gareth makes it hard to remember that Will actually won Pop Idol, but his soaring, soulful vocals remind you in seconds. In Beckham highlights and fashionably distressed jeans, he rolls through covers of Ain't No Sunshine and (I Get The) Sweetest Feeling before bravely airing his gospel direction on forthcoming single You And I. Will looks like a man loving every minute of his hour of fame, but totally genuine with it. The show's highlight comes with Zoë’s return for a spirited duet on It Takes Two. Will climaxes with Evergreen while an arena-length gantry descends and Gareth joins him at the other bottom stage for their schmaltz-ridden encore, The Long And Winding Road.
For all the talk of pop rivals, there seems genuine affection between the pair, and when Zoe returns once more for a final Let's Stay Together, there's more camaraderie between this threesome than you ever saw with Hear'Say - and they were in the same group.
Daily Telegraph - Source
One day Pop Idol winner Will Young will be granted permission to tour alone. For now, however, he resides at the top of a bill co-staring the show's runners-up, one of whom happens to be Gareth Gates. If Will is gnashing his teeth at having to share the limelight, he has so far proved too professional to show it. His teen nemesis Gareth, meanwhile, appears too gormless to notice, and their overwhelmingly female, teenage audience are too in love with both to care.
As is standard procedure for pop megastars these days, Gareth arrived on stage via some sort of hydraulic lift, from which he jumped and abseiled through thin air to safety. Try as he might, he couldn't avoid looking like a particularly uncomfortable daddy longlegs until he reached the floor and launched into the first of many cover versions, Michael Jackson’s The Way You Make Me Feel.
The crowd in the sold-out Wembley Arena, who had been screaming since the doors opened, raised their volume almost higher than the music, which kept up a tinnily radio-friendly rate all evening. Gates voice simply couldn't keep pace with his bored looking backing singers. An insipid rendition of Yesterday followed, with Gates chop sticking away on a grand piano, before he changed into the diamond-studded jumpsuit of his dreams for a comically faithful version of Elvis's Suspicious Minds complete with windmill arms. His pre-recorded introductions thanked us for letting him 'live his dream'. But for how long?
If Gareth was for the kids, Will gave his all for the mums in the house. His evident love of Motown and old school soul expressed itself in a classy selection of, yes, cover versions, beginning with Bill Withers' Ain’t No Sunshine. Unlike Gates however, Young clearly had a hand in the presentation and arrangement of his set, giving a performance so mature and assured by comparison that it made the double bill seem a faintly ridiculous concept. The self-written Over You and You & I, unlike Gates forgettable original slush, carried at least a whiff of Young's plummy charm.
Ending his solo set, he congratulated us on our taste after cheekily mishearing the crowd's hysterical requests for Light My Fire as 'Oh! Signed, Sealed and Delivered by Stevie Wonder? Super!' The vocal acrobatics he displayed on Pop Idol, however, were hidden away for safe keeping, presumably for the day he finally rests himself from the all-singing variety triple-bill. He's the one to watch.
Channel 4 Club 140
It’s less than 8 months since Will Young was crowned Pop Idol winner, yet last weekend he played to a packed at London’s Docklands Arena. He was joined by his old pop idol chums Gareth Gates and Zoe Birkett, who each performed their own material, joined him. Club went along to see if these reality TV singers look set to go the distance. Or will it be a case of Hear’Say all over again.
Pop Idol runner –up Zoe kicked off the concert by belting out a series of up-tempo dance numbers and gyrating in tight jeans and a denim crop-top. She then retreated from the stage to make way for the boys, who both performed tracks from their new albums.
Will looked like he had been on stage forever, with an assured air as he thrilled the audience with his fab forthcoming single Over You. At times Gareth Gates looked a little out of his depth on stage at London’s Docklands arena, when he struggled with his vocals. But he had the lion share of the girl fans in the audience – judging by the banners and the screams when he wiggled to his current hit Suspicious Minds. His costumed varied from trademark leather and denim to a dashing black suit for his duet with Will.
Gareth was obviously worried that his stammering problem would ruin the flow of the gig on his tour with pop idol bud’s Will Young and Zoe Birkett. At London’s Docklands Arena on the weekend pre-recorded messages linked his numbers, which seemed really weird! But the crowd were forgiving and loved it when cameras zoomed in on Gareth’s phone to display more messages.
But the true star of the show was Will Young who proved a versatile performer – he positively smouldered on Light My Fire, but he and Gareth had the crowd swooning on Long and Winding Road. Clubs favourites were Ticket to Love, made with legend Burt Bacharach and Over to You, set to be Will’s new single. His first album is From Now On is out this week and he’s reportedly made £1 million from tickets sales. No wonder he was smiling. The Will, Gareth and Zoe show ended with the trio singing Al Green’s “Let’s stay together”. The boys were smart in their funky black suits, while Zoe looked gorgeous in a simple white dress.
The highlight of the night was when a walkway was lowered across the arena and the trio walked along it, just inches from the exited audience. All in all a great show .