INTRODUCTION

On the 11th April 2007 a friend and I visited Hammersmith Apollo to see a once in a lifetime concert from Boyz II Men, Brian McKnight and Joe. I had been very excited for a few months before as I had been sitting on the tickets (not literally) for about three months. Anyway off we set from Taunton in Somerset all the way to Hammersmith In the centre of London.

Our Journey started with a Berrys "Superfast" Coach at 10.30am to Hammersmith Bus station for 1.30pm. All throught the journey I was very excited about who we were going to see in a matter of a few hours.

Hammersmith Apollo is situated on Queen Caroline Street which is under the Hammersmith flyover and is within easy access of Hammersmith Bus and tube station just over the road and all the bars, shops and clubs within a short walking distance And in close proximity to various hotels in the Hammersmith area.

I had known somewhat of the history of the Apollo from my mother who used to live in Hammersmith and from things like Jack Dee at the Apollo and other programs on television and legendary events from plays to concerts.

STATS AND FACTS

The Hammersmith Apollo was built in 1932 and the strangest thing about it perhaps is the amount of name changes it has had in it’s history. There has been The Apollo ,Gaumont Palace Hammersmith, Labbatts Apollo and finally Carling Apollo after the deal with the lager company of the same name.

Even though some of the worlds biggest names in music have performed here there are only a relatively low number of places available for the audience with a seating capacity of 5039 and only 3632 seats. Some of the artists have played to crowds ten times that but over and over again artists keep coming back to the Apollo because it has something that pulls them in.

For this concert I was in the standing area and had a very good position only five rows back and could see the artists only 15 feet away. This was something I had wanted to experience and later on I will tell you about it in more specific detail.

THE HALL

In quite a unique setting with what look like Chandelier lights on either side of the hall and a sloping stalls area for standing which helps to allow the people further back from seeing the stage.

It also has an old theatre feel to it and it hasnt changed much since when It was built apart from some work done on the roof where Venom accidentally burned Hammersmith Odeon's ceiling during performance, which event can be clearly seen in the 7 dates of hell concert video (during Countess Bathory). As a result, Venom was banned from Hammersmith for a year.

THE SOUND

The sound system was superb and really gave the concert what it needed to be special. Huge bass for the more taut tracks but a good midrange that expressed the vocals superbly.

PERFORMANCE HISTORY

As I mentioned in the last piece Some of the biggest names in music have performed here, including the likes of Metallica, The Beatles, David Gilmour, Dire Straits, Iron Maiden, Tool, Tori Amos, Motorhead, Eric Clapton,, Queen and many other well respected artists.

There have also been long running comedy shows from the likes of top comedians like Jack Dee “Live at the Apollo. Many of you will be familiar with that format but if you aren’t here’s the basic idea, A comedian performs a series of shows at the Apollo over a period of say a couple of months. Doing stints of several in a row they will do shows and interact with the audience. You may have seen where Jack Dee comes on with a mobile phone reading out text messages from the audience after he leaves the number up in the hall.

Back in the 1970's (then the Odeon) it was one of the top venues to play at with a number of artists releasing albums of live performances from the Apollo. Including 1975's Concert by Bruce Springsteen to mark 30 years of his music in 2005.

FOOD AND DRINK

I had eaten before we arrived at the Apollo but we had a couple of drinks while we were there and they were reasonably priced for London with a nice variety of spirits, soft drinks and beers. There are two bars in the Apollo, one on each floor.

There isnt that much in the way of food apart from stuff like Hot Dogs and crisps and snacks but they seemed alright from what they looked like (As I said we had already eaten). They were also reasonably priced for a concert venue in Central London.

ANY WEAKNESSES?

There arent many bad points about this concert venue but one complaint may be that they should allow people to bring their own soft drink and water bottles in to the hall because during the performance three people collapsed near to where we were standing, the stewards dealt with this well but even though they were handing out cups of water not everybody could get one.

This is the only slight problem I thought there was with this venue and I look forward to going again in a couple of months to see Velvet Revolver play in June when I shall be seated.

MY EXPERIENCE OF A CONCERT AT HAMMERSMITH APOLLO.

We arrived outside the Apollo around 5.30pm, we had decided originally to join the line at 6pm but as It was getting busy in the line we decided to stay put. Dodging a couple of people trying to sell us things, one was selling a ticket outside the hall for people walking past and there was one guy selling cd's that looked scarily like they were in breach of copyright.

Anyway we stood there for nearly an hour and a half and finally were let in just before 7pm when the doors to the hall opened. I made a dash for the loo and gave my mate the money for a round of drinks. Fresh with drinks we began to make our way down into the hall itself. As we were behind a few people we didnt get right to the front but we were still pretty close to the stage.

This gave us a great view and allowed us to take many pictures of the artists while they were on stage.
This is allowed without flash photography only. There were stewards positioned around the hall in order to catch people with flash cameras.

THE MUSIC

ALGEBRA
As the first act came on stage everybody was ready for a great night of live music. First up was a support act by the name of Algebra. She hails from Atlanta, Georgia and had just relased her debut solo album, she had perfomed as a support for the likes of Common, Lyfe Jennings, The Roots and Vivian Green and Kem who I reviewed on dooyoo. She had recently come of a tour with Keyshia Cole. Algebra's style was a little bit of everything from the urban genres. She had a fine voice but she wasnt a polished article yet but showed promise in the more tender parts of her set.

MEGAN ROCHELLE
Next up was another support and a few people had become restless and began to boo a little although it wasnt anything against the support they were just eager to see the headliners. The second act was Megan Rochelle Nieves a 21 year old singer from Brooklyn New York who was discovered by Nathan Morris from Boyz II Men. This striking half black, half puerto rican young woman had a very nice voice and she had a section of support from the applause she got.

JOE
The third act and first of the headliners was Joe Thomas, or just plain Joe. He swooned the ladies through his setlist of some of his greatest hits and brought something new to each song, whether it ws a different intonation or an electro acoustic guitar he did superbly.

BOYZ II MEN
The fourth act was the reason I had bought these tickets in the first place, yeah I love Brian McKnight and Joe's music but I adore Boyz II Men's music. Even when they were being introduced the crowd went mad. Nathan, Shawn and Wanya danced and sang their way through some of their biggest hits but the biggest cheer of the night came when they performed the amazing End Of the road which was at number one in 1992 for 16 weeks.

They then performed It's so hard to say goodbye with Brian McKnight at the end of their show. Which went down a treat. throught their part nearly everyone was singing the words with feeling. There were some nice touches when Shawn, Wanya and Nathan were giving out roses to people in the audience.

And when Shawn got the audience to phone their mum for the song A song for mama, I along with my friend did this and my mum thought it was a nice touch when I told her why I phone when all she could hear was loud music.

Boyz II Men were amazing and Wanya Morris was the star of the show for me as his voice was just extraordinary. The best act of the night in my opinion.

BRIAN MCKNIGHT

As well as wanting to see Boyz II Men and Joe I had also wanted to see Brian McKnight because I am also a big fan of his music and voice. He is one of the finest singers in the business as he demonstrated with his power and vocal range.

He played all the big hits like One last cry, Anytime and he also interacted wth the crowd by taking about love, he was funny enough to have a career as a comedian and had the hall in fits of laughter during his comedic talk about love.

He also made most of the girls jealous by inviting a woman up on stage to sit on the stool and be sung to, she was enjoying it so much and was shocked aswell that she was up on stage with Brian McKnight.

Later on in his set he introduced his two sons Brian Junior aged 18 and Niko 14, Niko played the guitar and sang backing with Brian Jr while their dad played he keyboard. His sons proved that musical talents runs in their family.

OVERALL

This was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had and has just wetted my appetite to see more and more concerts from many different artists across many genres. I can't wait to go again.