Darren Hayes: Birmingham Review: Your Beauty Won’t Betray You.

Birmingham – Your Beauty Won’t Betray You.

After a 6 hour train journey back from Glasgow, some pub grub and a pit stop home for a few hours in my own bed, Kelly and I headed off to the station. After the now somewhat obligatory hunt for a bacon butty in greggs we headed for our train. I had my lucozade in tow. TOO early. TOO tired. But ready to party again. The day off was lovely but we spent most of it on trains down the country so it was good to get on a train going somewhere exciting.

We arrived in Birmingham and went on a hunt for the new bullring Travelodge. Pretty easy to get to, nice and new as well. I love a nice new hotel when everyone is finding their feet, its got an excitement about it. Maybe that’s just me….

We checked in, bombed the hotel room, which was also obligatory by now, and left to head to the queue. We discovered a stall selling towels in the market, oooh a seat ;-). After making a purchase, we headed to the queue. So many mental Jessie J fans! We had just arrived when Clair and Maz arrived, followed shortly by Hilary. That was the hardest part about our day off, missing Hils so much. She is the life and soul of the party, it felt wrong without her.



It was pretty cold in Birmingham but at least it was under shelter. It’s just a shame that the nearest toilet or food was under the subway (we may have jaywalked on the way back LOL). After some wine (cheers hils, medicinal or course ;) ) and an amazing cheesy chip it was time to get our wristbands. WAHOO. Finally.

We got into the venue and were surprised to see there was still room for us on the end of the barrier. It was nice to not be so squished in. we met Geo and Amy standing behind us, Joe came to say hi, and I popped off to get some merch. And who did I find at a merch stand? the amazing Paul. We stood chatting for a bit, seems like so long ago since the LP and I persuaded him to join us, we are only little you can see over our heads ;). Goooood times.

Preshow music: Kelly had mentioned pat benetar – love is a battlefield after Glasgow but I wanted to hear it for myself, Kelly pointed that one out to me tonight.

Gabe Dixon.

It wasn’t long before Gabe came on, time goes quicker with a vodka and coke in hand ;) fab set as always from gabe.
Gabe’s set list:
1. Losing you
2. Even the rain
3. Release me
4. Running on fumes
5. I can see you shine
6. My favourite.
. Gabe said ‘Release me’ was about the guy I co-wrote it with’s ex partner. Gabe reckoned the crowd for ‘running on fumes’ was better tonight than in Glasgow but not to tell them. Personally I think Glasgow had the edge. The story for ‘my favourite’ about his wife was much less eloquent than other nights. I had to giggle. I fell totally in love with Gabe tonight. Something clicked, as I sung along and he saw me, I decided I needed his album, even if just for ‘I can see you shine’ alone. That song is all kinds of wonderful. After the show the merch stand was crazy so I decided to get it in London.

I just have one complaint about the venue. There was door beside the stage that was being used as a thoroughfare for the venue. Now that is fine, if the staff didn’t keep banging the door. Richard managed to come through it with some manners so why can’t people who work at the venue? I know they are working but it wouldn’t take much to respect the audience and shut the door quietly. We asked the bouncer if it would be possible not the slam the door and then off he went through it and slammed it. Just TOO rude.

Thankfully it wasn’t long before Darren was on, it was good to get to chat to both Hilary and Kelly either side of me :)

Set List:
1. Taken By The Sea
2. Talk Talk Talk
3. To The Moon and Back.
4. Don’t Give Up
5. Insatiable
6. Bloodstained Heart
7. The Animal Song
8. Break Me Shake Me
9. Black Out The Sun
10. Stupid Mistake
11. Popular
12. Hot Tub Blues
13. I Don’t Know You Anymore
14. Affirmation
------Encore ------
15. Crush / Spin
16. Truly Madly Deeply
17. Siren’s Call



1. Taken By The Sea
On the train home from Glasgow all I kept singing was ‘love lay me down, slay me with whispers’ I was driving myself mad (and I think Kelly too).
The stage was tiny tonight; the backdrop just about fit the stage. The umbrella was already placed on the stage as there wasn’t enough room for Darren to get through and he picked it up. There was something magic about watching Darren underneath the umbrella tonight. I always love the thrill of people in the room not knowing what is gonna happen.














2. Talk Talk Talk
talk talk talk was a lot of fun tonight. Darren done the pointing left, centre and right for the words ‘Talk, talk, talk’. I caught his eye when he sung to line ‘please hear me out’. I always will hear you out ;)




















3. To The Moon and Back.
This song always gets the best reaction. I love hearing people scream for it when they realise those first few notes. So much fun.






























4. Don’t Give Up
“I have a selfish reason for touring, I have a new record coming out next week, whose idea was that? *puts his hand up* it was mine. It’s called secret codes and battleships, this is a song from it called don’t give up”.
I nodded. Darren saw me. I don’t know why I nodded, I guess in agreement of everything don’t give up is. I adore that song. I always have. Since day 1 at the LP.
I love watching Darren belt his voice to this song. Darren pointed to the ‘story-e-h-eh’ a bit like someone would do when pointing to the notes when singing a scale.












5. Insatiable
Another perfect vocal. After the song finished, Darren stood still. The fan blowing on his hair. He looked quite emotional and was catching his breath.
































6. Bloodstained Heart
The beat this song has got really stands out live. Makes it a stomper. I love it. The crowd singing it back at the end was amazing, Darren moving his hands like the conductor of an orchestra.


























Chat.
Darren chatted a bit about the animal song then said “There are a few things I regret, mostly the hairstyles, some of them weren’t bad actually”.



7. The Animal Song
“you guys are pretty rhythmic”. It was true, it was going FAIRLY well tonight, until Pete messed it up. I think he got thrown we were actually NOT bad LOL.
‘Which one is more human there’s a thought now you decide’ *points at someone*. I love how Darren always points back at himself, ‘I want to live like animals’.
























































8. Break Me Shake Me
I still love that everyone cheers when they hear Billie Jean and then they go wild when they hear the first notes of break me. It works so well.

9. Black Out The Sun
Darren made a mistake on one of the lyrics but covered it well.
I caught his eye again ‘there’s no meaning’. :-)

















Chat.
“You get two choices, listening to your head or your heart. I always seem to fuck up when I listen to my head. All our lives we are presented with these intersections, do you choose the red pill, do to you choose the blue pill, do you go up, do you go down, do you choose right, do you choose wrong, sometimes the choices I make can take me to some very very strange places. This is a song called stupid mistake”

10. Stupid Mistake
Darren had got ready in super quick time and was having fun behind the screen sticking out his tongue, pulling faces and moving sexy. I was a little bit pre-occupied and almost got hit with the screen coming off the stage only Kelly pulled me back. My eyes were on Darren not the crew. Oops.

The stage was very small but Darren crew did an amazing job given the space they had to work with. They jumped on and off the stage when they had nowhere else to go and worked incredibly hard.
































11. Popular
I was still trying to work out those questions in the middle. I can never remember the half of them. ‘do you wanna be an icon?’ I still think there is something ironic about the clown singing popular. Very clever indeed.











12. Hot Tub Blues
I couldn’t really see a lot of this one as the stage was so small the table for I don’t know you anymore was in the way when Darren sat down. Perfect vocal though. Still love listening to this one live. Even if Kelly did have it on repeat on the train home from Glasgow.

13. I Don’t Know You Anymore
‘and she takes another step’. Just one line, sung very quietly, without the mic properly on. I got the impression Darren was caught up in the emotion and lost track for a moment. I don’t think it was intentional. Not sure.


















































14. Affirmation
Darren pulled a face when singing the lines ‘wedded bliss’ and ‘choose your sexuality’. I caught a picture of him looking at me at the end. AWWWW.
Such a shame that the security guy and his supervisor decided to shout over the top of Darren while he was singing. That was just plain rude. If you cant respect the audience, you could at least respect the performer.








































































































------Encore ------

There was one point towards the end that Darren knocked the mic stand off the stage. That rattled a few cages, mine included LOL.



15. Crush / Spin
‘Dance baby you know you’re gonna have such a good time, welcome to the 1980 me’ Darren done a few steps of the moonwalk and then Michael’s famous spin. Amazing moment. Darren does it so well, I shouldn’t be surprised really.
Darren was using his fingers to beckon shave over with the ‘come hither’ motion but shave was too busy being a keytar hero to look up and see. Peeps started to giggle so Darren went over, pulled in close to shave and licked the keytar. Priceless.
‘I wish that I could be 11 again, you know times have changed, never be the same, but the MEMORIES inside my heart’. Loved that little lyric change.

16. Truly Madly Deeply
‘this song doesn’t belong to me anymore, its belongs to us’. AWWWW. Loved this song tonight.
Such a shame that the security guy and his ‘supervisor’ felt it appropriate to SHOUT over the top of Darren AGAIN. I was so mad. I waited until I caught his eye then put my finger to my lips. I didn’t stop them though. Grrrr.











17. Siren’s Call
This song gets under my skin. I just connect to it so much. SO much love for it tonight. That is all.


After the show.
We said a quick hello to Vanessa and her hubby and Ade and Charles and headed off round the back to see if we could catch a glimpse of Darren leaving. Paul was too funny telling us ladies he would protect us. I giggled so hard. The fake walk he put on was just TOO funny.

At the stage door it was a bit chaotic because Jessie J fans were waiting for her too but would not be told this was Darren’s door and jessie’s was down the road. I had to giggle when a guy trying to sell Jessie J posters tried to sell them to us Darren Hayes fans and then poor Alice when she came out to get on the bus.

Darren came out and and Cathy said he wouldn’t be talking to preserve his voice. The general consensus was that he made a great mime artist. I was too far back to see much, I was fine with that, lots of other people deserve their moment. Paul was stood beside me and asked if I wanted him to throw my bag I bought at the merch to Darren. I said please and Paul told Darren it was mine. I could see Darren looking over the top of the crowd of me. I shouted ‘hi, I’m here’ forgetting that I wasn’t actually that far away from him just because I couldn’t see him. OOPS. Sorry Darren. Darren signed my bag then had Cathy turn round so he could lean on her to write some more. I remember Paul turning to me and saying ‘he’s writing his life story on your bag’. ‘Awww’ was my reply. I took it back and it said ‘my beautiful hails’. AWWWWW. Thank you Darren for making little old me feel special. Thank you so much paul for passing it to Darren for me. I was gutted for Kelly that she didn’t manage to get her bag signed.

Paul, Hils, Kelly and I headed back to our Travelodge. We had a great time drinking wine in the bar. It was a fabulous white. LOVED it. I had so much fun in that bar I could have stayed there all night chatting. Sometimes that’s what’s so special about Darren Hayes shows. It’s the time spent with other fans, friends, that makes it. Unfortunately there was a creepy guy inching his way towards our table, I did laugh when Paul turned to bottle round to show the label and declare he could have at least sent a drink over if he was gonna perv LOL. We had to get up early for London so I dragged a slightly tipsy me to bed. Paul, that picture of all of us in the lift is PRICELESS.

Great show. Great friends. Great times.