Lionel: A legend in his own lifetime

Last night, I had a date with Lionel Richie at Wembley Arena. I've always admired the guy and liked his music, right back to his Commodores days. When we got to our seats (block N3 row V), John and I were surrounded by old fogies and I was thinking 'oh Christ, this is gonna be dull if they all stay rooted to their seats'. However, we did have a full row of youngsters behind us so there was hope! The supporting act was Louise Setara, a 19 year old unknown to me. Her music was very 'easy listening', not at all my cup of tea. She pointed out that she is on myspace so here's her link; http://www.myspace.com/louisesetara.



So, onto the man himself. I've gotta say that I was a little worried about how the show would go especially as Lionel has so many ballads in his repertoire, but I needn't have. He performed 50/50 ballads and uptempo songs and the show was sensational! His singing is so effortless, a true pro and legend. I've always loved his personality and his interaction with the audience was great - he talked throughout the gig and has a fun sense of humour. Such a lovely guy - I would love to meet him and give him a hug.

Lionel performed pretty much all of his and the Commodores' hits; the only song which springs to mind that he didn't do was 'Truly'. He got the audience to sing Diana Ross' part of Endless Love which was good and made jokes about why on earth you would need Diana to be there! When Lionel did his encore of about four songs at the end, the fans all sang along with 'Hello', which was one of the highlights for me and he ended with 'All Night Long' which is a bit of a party song, leaving everyone in a really good mood. He'd been toying with us all night long about doing it, and saying we were 'an all night long' crowd!

I would definitely go and see Lionel again. It was a really fun night.



(Posted 24 Mar 2007)