As the opening act, Tom Ball created a festive and warm atmosphere with beautifully sung tracks from Les Miserables and his album Curtain Call. The stunning vocals were sadly interrupted with excessive speaking and self-promotion from Tom which made his set feel jolty and lacking lustre.
After a short interval, which I thought was unnecessary and meant that some energy was lost, The Overtones came on stage starting their set off strong with one of their biggest hits Gambling Man. By the third song, they had the majority of the audience up on their feet dancing along which has to be admired when the average age was about 60! Throughout the set the crowd work was fantastic, playfully flirting with the grannies, a little skit about turning the Christmas tree lights on and even coming down into the crowd (I was on the aisle and got a hug - life changed forever).
As well as their original music, a lot of classic sing-along tunes made the setlist like I Say A Little Prayer and Love Really Hurts Without You, which meant that even if you didn’t know their songs, no one was left out of the sing-along. The show felt festive, jolly, and the correct level of cringe-worthy from some incredible dad-dancing that was mostly in sync. Although it felt like the dancing needed a lot of work in order to be a polished show, notably the grinding on the microphone and mild twerking action, or maybe I’m just not their demographic because the grannies seemed to go wild.
All in all, I enjoyed myself, and who doesn’t love a bit of cringey dancing and fantastic singing to start the festive period off with a bang!
