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LIVE PERFORMANCE Monday, 27th August, 2010 O2 Academy, Glasgow, Scotland  Stacey Walton has just released her debut album which has been one of the most talked about records of recent times, she was of course nervous about how it would turn out, well it turned out incredible, hugely successful and tonight is the first gig since the release of the album and it’s evidently the celebration party gig tonight, the fans are extremely excited and the tickets for tonight went on sale 16 days ago and sold out within 30 minutes of them being made available, she’s clearly got the support to move into bigger venue’s like the O2 Arena but she seems satisfied with playing the Academy’s and working her way up, also a major part of her live performances is the intimacy between audience and performer, something that is clearly evident tonight.
We’re all herded into the venue 20 minutes prior to the gig and Stacey walks out onto the stage early and speaks to the audience, “Hey, how’s everyone doing. I know you’ve still got 20 minutes until my performance and I’m not allowed to begin the performance until 9:00 o’clock, so I thought I’d just come out here and talk to you guys for 5 or so minutes, stop you all from being bored.” her early arrival is met with huge cheers and she talks to the crowd for about 8 minutes, she tells us a story about the first time she ever came up to Scotland, it’s a very entertaining story about Stacey and a couple of friends being chased through the woods by a couple after stumbling upon a car which seemed deserted, turns out there was a couple having sex and the group of friends were caught trying to listen to the couple, it all ended ok when the couple gave up chasing Stacey and her friends.
And before we knew it she was back out onstage to begin the performance. “Hey everyone, hope you weren’t too bored waiting for me, but here we go, I’m ready to have fun tonight, are you.” (*huge cheers from the capacity audience.) “Alright, this is off my debut, it’s called A Whisper In The Wind.” She begins the song with her now trademark instrument, that’s right, the maracas are back. The crowd ripples into giggles as she holds up the maracas. The song is performed with the typical kind of swagger we’ve all come to expect from Stacey, she moves along the stage from left to right, barely staying in one place for more than 20 seconds. After the song she throws the maracas into the front row, caught by 19 year old, who is clearly delighted.
Next up is the iconic, and you’d think overplayed London Calling, she continue’s to make it interesting and keep it fresh when performing this song, it’s a pretty regular feature in her Setlist and the crowd love it, it continue’s to be an energetic cover version and has the attitude that you expect from someone who covers a song by The Clash, the crowd sing along with it, despite us being in Scotland. At the end of the song, she screams into the microphone, “GLASGOW!!!!!!”
And now onto one of her originals, the often miss-interpreted Don’t Be Gentle, it’s not about sex but it’s clearly the way she wants people to think about it. She continue’s to move around, and during this song she moves to the edge of the stage, reaching out her hand, the crowd is young as you’d expect and certainly the first few rows are full of 16 -18 year old boys, something Stacey uses to her advantage, winking and smiling and thrusting her body forward to encourage them to cheer. At the end of the song she shouts, “I’ll lie back and scream/don’t be gentle to me.”
And now onto the most tame song of the night, a cover of The Beatles classic All You Need Is Love, her backing band are more in view tonight than usual, they’re usually nearer the back of the stage and stay away from the limelight but tonight they’re moving around the stage freely and are providing a good foil for Stacey, she leans on the shoulders and shares vocals with the main guitarist, it’s something her fans aren’t used to seeing but it seems like she’s told the guys to get more closer to improve the performance and it seems to have worked and the female’s in the audience seem to be rather happy with the addition of a couple of guys in view.
And now time for a song about the rock n roll lifestyle, it could have been written about any number of famous Rockstars from Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain. She jumps down from the stage during a long solo from her guitarist Scott Daniels, she steps up to the barriers holding the audience back, she runs along the front and reaches her hand out and continue’s to move along past the barriers, she sees an opening space at one corner of the barrier and climbs into the crowd, she speaks to one of the audience members, a guy maybe about 20 years old, and before you know it she’s sitting on the guys shoulders dancing along to her guitarists solo, smiling and laughing, clearly having fun. She eventually makes her way back onstage, She finishes off the song with a bellowing vocal, “Some people call this a fuck up/I say rip up the rulebook.”
Now time for a more personal song, She switches to acoustic guitar and begins, Your Love (Leads A Girl To Drink), it’s a completely acoustic song, no drums, no bass and no electric guitar. During the performance the expected lighters and mobile phones get raised into the air, creating the kind of atmosphere more at home at Wembley Stadium, and during this performance it was as if we were in a much bigger venue, the ability of Stacey is incredible, she’s got such good stage presence, even when there isn’t an awful lot of room for manoeuvre she still manages to make the most of the space she has. I must say, there is no other place I would have rather been during tonight’s performance.
And now time for another cover, one of her big influences, Come As You Are by Nirvana. Half of the crowd seem to be aware of the song and the legacy of the band, half seem like Nirvana fans and the other half don’t seem to realise that it’s a cover. I think that shows the quality of her, she manages to make it so different yet still seem so familiar, it’s not an easy thing to do but she does it with such clinical ability, she has shown everyone that she’s at her best when she’s touring and I’ll be there when she decides to do a full headlining tour and play places like Wembley or the O2 Arena, I can’t see many people competing with her, she’s in a league of her own right now and in my view, the future of music looks promising with people like Stacey, Glamazon, Daniel, Infinite and Mind, I for one am excited.
And now a song which could be the next single, possibly released in the next couple of months, it would be too easy for Stacey to release this in December but I’d like to think she won’t be tempted to go for a Christmas number 1. This song is called Remember Winter, it tells the story about a young girl, maybe 18 years old, who’s boyfriend is away fighting in the war, it’s from the point of view of the girl, who is singing about their past, when they’d spend winter evenings in front of the TV, the song feels incredibly warm when listening to it, and live it appears to take on a more emotional feel, she keeps her eyes closed throughout the majority of the song. After the song finishes, “Thank you everyone, it’s been fucking ace tonight, I’ve loved every moment of it and you’ve been incredible. Thank you all.”
The lights go out before coming back on, out walks Stacey with her band, smiling, she waves to the crowd and picks up the electric guitar, “This is the latest single, it’s called English Girls.” She begins the intro and sings the song while moving around the stage, holding the microphone stand and pointing it into the crowd for them to sing the chorus, She then encourages the audience to wave their arms from side to side, creating an amazing atmosphere, she continue’s with the song, bellowing the vocals to it, like a rock legend.
“Alright, this is my debut of a new song, it’s called what goes around. Hope you like it.” It’s an unexpected song on the Setlist and it goes down well, it fits in very well with the other songs performed tonight and could become a regular. It’s got everything we’ve come to expect from a Stacey Walton song, it’s got attitude, it’s got an anthemic chorus and it’s got the rock n roll swagger we’ve all loved from Stacey, very much a potential hit, hopefully it will be recorded some day but we’ll have to make do with the live debut. The crowd jump up and down along to it and have had their money’s worth tonight, I think the majority of the audience are expecting that to be the last song of the evening.
It isn’t, it’s time for another cover and this is rather unexpected to say the least, she switches to acoustic guitar and performs a song which nobody saw coming tonight, before she plays it she has something to say, “I just want to say that I’m not a fan of this song, but I was asked to play it for a friend a couple of weeks ago and I thought, fuck that I’m not playing it like the original, I’m gonna change it up a bit, don’t be put off by the original, hopefully you like this.” it’s a cover of … Rude Boy by Rihanna. It’s barely recognizable, it’s more like a grunge version and that’s something I never thought I’d say about a Rihanna song. The crowd surprisingly enjoyed it.
And now it’s time for the huge song of hers, everyone knows this one, it’s A Tender Kiss, it was a huge hit for her and it’s hugely popular. The crowd sing along with all throughout and their enthusiasm hasn’t gone tonight. She’s rocked the show tonight and the fans have loved every minute of it, a massive success and hopefully it will continue. Rarely does a performer have such stage presence and remain one of us. Overall, the performance has blown me away.SETLIST1. A Whisper In The Wind 2. London Calling (The Clash Cover) 3. Don’t Be Gentle 4. All You Need Is Love (The Beatles Cover) 5. Rip Up The Rulebook 6. Your Love (Leads A Girl To Drink) 7. Come As You Are (Nirvana Cover) 8. Remember Winter ENCORE9. English Girls Are Easy 10. What Goes Around 11. Rude Boy (Rihanna Cover) 12. A Tender KissOOC: I haven't done a live roleplay for a few weeks now so I thought I'd have a go at making my best one yet, if you've managed to read it let me know if I acheived what I set out to achieve, sorry about the length. |