23 replies to this topic

[Honoured Guest]

SHk, on 12 December 2011 - 07:28 PM, said:

BTW, who is Les Dawson?

In this clip, Mr Dawson is the pianist:

[SHk]

Honoured Guest, on 12 December 2011 - 08:49 PM, said:

In this clip, Mr Dawson is the pianist:

Thank you. Can he actually play the piano? Or that exactly was the joke?  Up-market version of this gentleman... Ummm I probably didn't miss too much, then. But I am sure Mr. Lawson was a very popular comedian in his time.

[Honoured Guest]

Lawson was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. Les Dawson was a very popular comedian and entertainer.

[QuincyMD]

He was a uk comedian.

[SHk]

Excuse my spelling mistake. Mr. Lawson was a Chancellor and  Mr. Dawson was a comedian. Got it.

[Honoured Guest]

Nigel Lawson was grossly overweight but slimmed down drastically and subsequently published The Nigel Lawson Diet Book.

Les Dawson was just overweight.

[poster J]

SHk, on 12 December 2011 - 07:28 PM, said:

Has anybody acutally go to his BHH concert? If so, was it really as bad as The Times says? : "Boe's next career move must be to decide whether he wants to be a downmarket Andrea Bocelli or an upmarket Les Dawson. And then work on it." (2 stars).

I watched it in a cinema.  Personally I thought the first half really was poor, would have probably left at the interval if I hadn't been with people who wouldn't consider doing such a thing!   The second half was somewhat of an improvement, although some of the duets just didn't work, and I really don't think he should ever try singing the Beatles again...  There wasn't a particularly rousing finale, most of his guests didn't seem to know the song (I didn't either) and he played the drums for most of it so didn't engage with the audience to build the atmosphere towards the end.  I left feeling somewhat underwhelmed and disappointed.

Most of it was instantly forgettable, the only memorable moment being when Claude-Michel Schonberg played the piano for Bring Him Home.   Boe's version of Tell Me It's Not True from Blood Brothers was pretty good too, but it was strange to have him sing that, then later bring on a former Mrs Johnson (Melanie C) to sing a completely different song.  

He had a guest singer who did a few competent but forgettable songs and then messed up the words to Danny Boy.  And he also had one of the actresses who plays little Cosette in Les Mis singing Castle on a Cloud, which again was fine, but really nothing to give the show any 'wow' factor.  

The Les Dawson comparison comes from the fact that Boe tried to be humorous with his talking in between songs, but I don't think it worked at all.  I didn't find that much of it funny, particularly when Matt Lucas joined in and they laughed most of the way through a terrible rendition of The Impossible Dream.  He was trying a bit too hard to come across as funny and it didn't seem completely natural in parts.  Plus I was very distracted by him looking at the autocue after every single line of every single song....

I think 2 stars is maybe a little harsh as there were some good moments, despite the technical problems and over-use of the autocue.

[SHk]

Poster J, thank you for your detailed comment. Now I know why Alfie (who is slim)  is compared to Mr. Dawson (who was fat, right?).

Glad to hear it wasn't as bad as 2 stars.  I get really annoyed when  famous(ish) artsts programme/give really poor-quality shows, (wrongly) assumeing his/her adoring fans wouldn't know the difference between good and bad. The other day, I chanced upon Katherin Jenkins' O2 concert on Sky"ART" 2 and nearly vomitted.

What is autocue?

[poster J]

SHk, on 15 December 2011 - 02:30 PM, said:

Poster J, thank you for your detailed comment. Now I know why Alfie (who is slim)  is compared to Mr. Dawson (who was fat, right?).

Glad to hear it wasn't as bad as 2 stars.  I get really annoyed when  famous(ish) artsts programme/give really poor-quality shows, (wrongly) assumeing his/her adoring fans wouldn't know the difference between good and bad. The other day, I chanced upon Katherin Jenkins' O2 concert on Sky"ART" 2 and nearly vomitted.

What is autocue?

It wasn't as bad as 2 stars, but it was just about good enough for 3 stars, no more.  I saw Kerry Ellis at the Albert Hall earlier this year and she put on a far superior show, without using an autocue and with a lot of movement across the stage and out into a platform through the arena, whereas Alfie stayed fairly static around a central microphone and didn't look at the audience much.

Autocue is a screen at the edge of the stage or hung from a balcony facing the performer that scrolls through the lyrics of each song.  I don't mind them being there, it's better than someone forgetting their words, but Alfie literally looked down (the autocues were on either side of him, the cameras frequently picked them up) after every single line instead of interacting much with the audience while singing, which I thought was quite poor.

[SHk]

Ah, that thing. I didn't know those are for lyrics though. Thank you again for telling me.

I am with you about being annoyed that Alfie totally relied on it. He should have learned his words before going on a NATIONAL tour.  This is again, a sever lack of commitment from him, just like when he was so often abscent from Les Miz.  

It just makes me sad that some singers think they can get away with such poor delivery only because they are heavily promoted and therefore have become quite well-known.  It's just an insult to those other talented but less promoted and  harder working singers/actors. Really bad for the artistic standards of the UK show-biz.

But it was good to know that Kelly gave a much better concert. I don't know much about her, but I remember Mark Shenton giving her gig a rave review too.