John Barrowman @ Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow 24th November 2011

There’s nothing better than finishing a 27 date tour off in your home town, and that is exactly what John Barrowman did on the 24th November as he brought his most recent tour to a close at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow.

The stage was ‘hidden’ behind a white curtain, which, when the show started, showed John’s silhouette before being dropped and launching into Celebrate followed by the equally upbeat Listen To The Music. After this Glasgow was privileged to have ‘Scottish’ John for the evening as he welcomed the audience to the show and warned that with it being the last night of the tour, there were a few special surprises instore. Here started the first of the many slide shows and jokes of the evening, starting with a promotional image of him ‘farting sparkles’ and commenting to a lady in the front row that she looked like she’d already been covered. An image of him meeting Barry Manilow was shown and he explained how after performing with him, he gave John permission to cover any of his back catalogue. This here led into the beautiful Mandy.

Talking about moving away from your home country, he mentioned about the things that you missed about the UK including the Eurovision. Here the audience were treated, along with the J4s (John’s dancers) to a medley of John’s favourite Eurovision songs. At the end of it, the J4s were supposed to be asking for permission to perform, and John refusing. We also had one of the male dancers threatening to kiss John but it wouldn’t be until they were about to take to the stage themselves, that he would strike an unsuspecting John with one. Of course, there was only one song that the J4s could do and that was Making Your Mind Up.

Returning to the stage, John performed the Gary Barlow written track, What About Us. Afterwards he asked who in the audience was there with their partners, husbands, wives, people they shouldn’t have been with before explaining that the song was a ‘greetin’ song’ before realising that Glasgow hadn’t changed because we don’t forgive anyone. This led into And I Love You So.

Taking a break, the audience were entertained by Jodie Pregner (for those who, don’t know who she is, she won the BBC show looking for a Nancy to star in the new version of Oliver!) who performed her versions of Aretha Franklin’s Respect as well as Rihanna’s Umbrella. Once again, John takes to the stage and dedicated the next song to everyone who’s supported him in anyway. From here we had Owe It All To You before leading into a Katy Perry’s Firework. Bringing the first half to the end was a performance of Take That’s Greatest Day where he invited the Royal Consertaire of Scotland (formly RSMAD) Choir on stage to join him.

Kicking off the 2nd half with the song Tonight’s The Night, he then explained about why he started the BBC1 show and how they’ve now managed to sell it to other countries around the world. The audience was then treated to a VT of Tonight’s The Night from around the world including the Ukrainian, Swedish, Chinese and Spanish versions of the show. Showing a picture of Petula Clarke led into the song Downtown. Afterwards he told the story about coming home one day to find his mother in a French Maid’s outfit waiting for his dad and what happened with that. Coming in on fancy dress, his dad was dressed as a builder whilst his mother was dressed as a policewoman. This led into party favourite, Y.M.C.A. with the audience taking part along side.

Once again, Jodie came back to the stage to give John a chance to disappear to get changed and performed Shake A Tail Feather as well as the beautiful Fields Of Gold. Another ‘greetin’ song from John in the form of You Raise Me Up before explaining about his niece Claire (who’s getting married) before inviting Jodie back on stage to perform the song So Close from the Disney film Enchanted. Another medley in the theme of holidays before ending with Hollywood.

Of course, that wasn’t the end as there was an encore. Returning back to sing the ABBA classic The Winner Takes It All (where you could have heard a pin drop when he was singing, until the end when someone’s phone went off which ruined the moment). Once again he invited the Royal Consertaire of Scotland Choir on stage to perform a medley of Scottish songs which got the audience up, singing along and hand holding along the rows. The final track of the evening was to be the one that John calls his theme, and that was I Am What I Am.

Overall, it was an enjoyable evening with laughter and tears. It was nice to have ‘Scottish’ John for the evening too and enjoyed the little extras that we got (Scott singing Rhinestone Cowboy, the choir and the medley). Is it worth seeing him? Well, I guess it depends on what capacity you enjoy John. If you enjoy him for being an all round entertainer, then yes you’ll probably enjoy the evening but if it’s only bits and pieces, then maybe not. Jodie did well to continue the show during John’s breaks and would probably be good in her own show. Still, it was a night out for Glasgow and don’t think that they disappointed.

Photos © Vhari Lannigan

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