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Tour memories. Sheffield


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What follows is a series of personal accounts and newspaper reports, originally posted on GG............

From Heather and Rachel. Sheffield meet and greet. 03.03.04

We arrived in Sheffield at 3.15, we had loads of time and was feeling a bit nervous, so went over the road to the pub for a stiff drink!!!

When we came back across we met up with Sarah (wicked laydee) and her friend Amy, we waited in a little room, for what seemed like ages, all the time getting more and more nervous.

They came in a called us out and told up to line up outside the little room, when we were all ready they took us down a long corridor and then into a room which just had a table and a chair in it, we queued up and then the girls in front of us decided to move to the middle of the queue, so then Heather and me were first!!! (panic, panic)

Kelly was wandering about and kept coming in and out from behind a big curtain, then all of a sudden Gareth appeared from behind it, with a big smile on his face, he said "hello",( the whole of the room took a big breath and went oooo, lol) and then sat down at the table, He was wearing karki green trousers and top and a brown leather jacket and brown boots, he looked GORGEOUS!.

He looked across and called us over.

We said can we go together as we were a little shy, lol. I asked him if he would sign me a few things and he said "yes, course", I gave him the tour programme, a photo out of the tour programme that I had printed out, and a birthday card for my little girl, Kelly asked if she was with us, I said no, but she would have loved to have been there, coz every time we go past the old house in Bradford she wants to go knock on the door..gareth went..."aww, bless".

I then gave him the jigsaw and told him it was part 3, lol Heather told him it was all my idea.

I then gave him my gift bag with his prezzies in, he started to go to open it, I nearly had a fit! and told him to do it later, Heather said "open that later its rude", lol he looked at me and laughed.

Then it was Heather's turn, she got her gift bag and got out of it a jar of Yorkshire mixture, well you should have seen his face lol he lifted out of his seat and said "Oh I LOVE Yorkshire mixture" right loud, all the rest of the room could hear him, she also told him about a letter from a fan in Austria, he really seemed to take notice and listen. Heather had her programme signed too and her cover for Spirit In The Sky, the special Edition one, while he was signing it she was looking into his eyes and telling him how well the Red noses had sold in Oxfam, but instead of saying noses she said roses, lol Gareth looked and said "noses"

She told him we had enjoyed watching him on comic Relief and that it was a pity he didn't pass his test. I asked him if he had done any more lessons, he tapped his watch and said he hadn't had time.

Heather also told him we had spoke to his dad on Sunday.

He then asked if we wanted photo's, he got out from behind the desk and I went to stand with him, he put his arm round me and I did the same, Kelly took the photo, when she had done I asked him if I could kiss him and he said yes so I went to kiss him and I had sticky lipgloss on and I got stuck to him, lol when I pulled away I was dying to wipe it off his cheek but though, no betta not!

When it was Heather's turn for the photo, she went to stand next to him and came out with "you are a tall boy aren't you" LOL

We told him were we proud of him and then that was it all finished we wasn't allowed to stay in the room so we just stood outside the door and watched Sarah and her friend have there time with him and then made our way out. We then went back over the pub for another stiff drink!!!

From Heather and Rachel xx

Heather thank you so much for asking me to go with you to the meet and greet i had a brilliant time it really was a dream come true love Rachel xx

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From 'Sheffield Today'

In a refreshing change to most of his pop peers the boy can sing, and performed live throughout. He has worked hard to correct the stammer that helped rocket him to stardom and bravely spoke to his fans throughout, encouraging anyone with "problems or disabilities" to overcome them.

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From the Guardian (not the greatest review, but worth keeping anyway)

Pop

Gareth Gates

Sheffield Arena

Dave Simpson

Thursday March 4, 2004

The Guardian

The screens declare that for £9.99 you can join Gareth Gates's fan club and read his personal diary. Perhaps this week's entry will read: "It's been a while since I was pipped by Will Young to Pop Idol and this is my first solo tour. Sheffield Arena was barely half full." Encouragingly, hordes of teens cheer Gates's video image. More ominously, they show an unexpected grasp of irony by making similar noises towards some tulips.

A version of Unchained Melody - with Gates' helium vocals barely audible - sounds like the sort of thing used to flush South American dictators from hideaways. However, the cheers are deafening. When a delighted tot next to me catches my unimpressed, adult grimace I have this horrible feeling that I am ruining her show. Thus, for the next few songs I cheer Gareth wildly. "I'm a really bad dancer," he sighs. Yay! And then, amazingly, my own claps become less ironic.

Although Gates has been depicted in the tabloids as a Jordan-shagging raver, it's hard not to warm to a performer who can talk for minutes in an unaffected Bradford accent about disability, or not be touched as his supposedly overcome stammer makes a return. Gates is visibly, endearingly nervous, forgetting the chords on a keyboard. "I'm not playing live anyway," he sponatenously quips, showing an unexpected grasp of the ridiculousness of it all.

His music has less humanity, half of it suggesting some secret love for 1980s jazz-funk, although new track Go Your Own Way is a decent stab at blue-eyed soul. A cover of Suspicious Minds avoids the gates of Hell, he plays appalling rock guitar and surprisingly fantastic drums, but you wonder where his career can go when the kids grow up. But the tinnitus-inducing ovation suggests it might be a while before Gates's nightmare diary entry: "I've got this job in plumbing."

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From *Hez*Gareth*

I'm sooo sorry it's late but I've been sooo busy lately and haven't had time to do it. But here it is now... hope you enjoy it!!

Me and my mum arrived at Sheffield Arena at about 3.30. I was hoping to see Gareth arrive but he was already there. I went up to the stairs outdoors and listened in through the doors. Gareth was sound checking. It was great to hear it! He was doing Enough Of Me I think as he was doing those ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ he does! Very sexy! I also heard him speaking but I couldn’t hear what he was saying!

The time came when the doors were about to open so we went to pick our tickets up from the box office and went in. I was sooo excited! We found out seats- Block a, Row 4, seats 3 & 4. We had a great view of the stage which I was very happy about!

So the support act did their thing and there was a 25-minute break between them and Gareth, which seemed like forever! Finally the moment we had all been waiting for….the lights went down and everyone went mad! On the screens there was clips from different thing and cat deeley introduced him! There he was!! The one and only Gareth Gates! The crowd went wild for him as he sung the opening song, Unchained Melody.

Gareth then went on to sing Foolish complete with funky dancing! We were all shocked at how amazing a dancer he was, he’d obviously been practicing a lot!! Next up was Freak My Baby, which was fantastic. He also did dancing to this with his dancers who were also great. The song really got the crowd going! Next up he slowed it down a bit by singing Soul Affection beautifully. His voice was fantastic followed by Just Say Yes. The next song he did was my personal fave part of the concert! Enough Of Me has been my fave song off GYOW since I heard it. When I saw Gareth was going to be playing guitar to it I was VERY happy! And boy did he blow us all away with his amazing guitar skills! He really rocked and kept on saying “ROCK ON!!” which was really funny! He then did a little acoustic version of Sentimetal, which was fantastic. His voice was amazing!

He went off stage to change into his jeans, white vest and white shirt. He came back on singing Sunshine. Everyone was singing along! After that he did a piano medley. He showed off his piano skills whilst singing That’s When You Know, Hard To Say I’m Sorry, Overjoyed and What My Heart Wants To Say. During Hard To Say I’m Sorry he stopped and said ‘Ya know what I’ve actually forgot the next chords’ Everyone laughed and cheered him! He said ‘at least I’m playing live’. It was really funny! Bless him! The piano medley was beautiful, it really showed off his voice!

Next up was Suspicious Minds. He got the audience to sing at the end of the song. We all sung ‘because I love you too much Gareth’ which he loved!!

After that he was introducing his band and they said they wanted him to play drums. So he does a little drum solo and boy was it amazing! I never expected him to be that good at the drums, he was really giving it some! Fantastic. The crowd absolutely loved it! While he was playing his drummer got up and got his coat and hat and started walking off the stage! Gareth got up and started going ‘don’t go, I’m sorry I embarrassed ya’ in his gorgeous Yorkshire accent. It was really funny. He said ‘You’ll find your self working for Will Young!’

He went off stage to get changed again and came back on with a gorgeous black jacket, and white t-shirt with a 7 written on in orange and jeans. He looked great. He sung Club Hoppin’ next with his dancers, which was fantastic! The dancing was brilliant! After that he sung Groove With Me, which was also fantastic. He went off stage shortly after to get changed into his Grease outfit. He looked fab! He sung Grease Is The Word and danced with his dancers. They had school tables and one of his dancers had her feet on the table, he said to her ‘feet off the table love’.

Next up he sung All Cried Out beautifully And then went onto Go Your Own Way. Both songs were fantastic. He told us that was the last song. The next song Gareth said was going to be ‘a bit special’. He picked a girl from the audience and she sat next to him on stools. He sang Anyone Of Us to her, looking into her eyes! He had hold of her hand. He told her to sing and she did a bit! He told her to wave at the crowd, blow them a kiss (which she did) and pick her nose but she decided not to do that bit! He hugged her and off she went, lucky girl! He went off stage again to get changed.

The encore was great. He came on wearing a black suit and his dancers had Indian dresses on. They did Spirit In Sky, which was a more rocky version, which was really good. He then did the final song of the night…Say It Isn’t So. It was a beautiful song! After that it was all over!

His speech was fantastic and he did sooo well to speak for so long in front of us all. He said to us ‘I’m going to talk to you now. Why? Because I can!’ which I thought was oh so sweet of him! He told jokes about Skippy the bush kangaroo and started hopping round the stage like a kangaroo. It was sooo funny! He also ordered a pizza on the phone and got us to shout ‘noooo cheese’ when he said! The concert was fantastic and he is such a funny guy! ROCK ON!!

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