Heaven tour
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Setlist: ‘Fighting Suspicions’, ‘Mr Bright Eyes’, ‘Glitter and Gold’, ‘Diamond To A Stone’, ‘Shoulder To Shoulder’, ‘Knocked Up’ (Kings of Leon cover), ‘Gimme Shelter’ (Rolling Stones cover), ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ (Sam Cooke cover), ‘Teach Me How To Be Loved’, ‘Too Good To Lose’, ‘Take Care’ (Drake cover), ‘Fairytale (Let Me Live My Life This Way)’, ‘Run Free’. Encore: ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’
Rebecca Ferguson continued her first headline tour in the heart of the capital on Tuesday night (March 13), proving that there’s no need for a big spectacle when you’ve got an incredible voice and an breathtaking repertoire of material.
Opening with the amazing ‘Fighting Suspicions’, Rebecca guided her attentive audience through all ten songs on her aptly-titled album Heaven with the effortless grace of someone born to sing. During the ballads, most notably ‘Shoulder To Shoulder’ and ‘Teach Me How To Be Loved’, you could have heard a pin drop – her vocals were charged with the same anguish that went in to penning the lyrics, and the audience was right there feeling it with her. As for the uptempo numbers, the rather posh setting of the Theatre Royal didn’t necessarily invite people to stand up and dance until specifically instructed to do so, but the atmosphere didn’t suffer for it, and it didn’t stop the roof being raised on tracks like ‘Too Good To Lose’, Sam Cooke cover ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’ and rousing finale ‘Run Free’ – which, incidentally, sounded even better in performance than it does on record.
In terms of performance, Rebecca seemed more and more comfortable as the night went on, humbly thanking her fans for supporting her right from her first audition on The X Factor two years ago, and harmlessly quipping “That was so last year!” when a cheeky concertgoer shouted “One Direction!” in the middle of her pre-’Fairytale (Let Me Live My Life This Way)’ speech on crushes (a reference, of course, to her brief romance with the boyband’s Zayn Malik).
The night was inevitably wrapped up by the rousing encore of ‘Nothing’s Real But Love’, a song that gets more and more enchanting with every listen and is somehow even more amazing live. If you don’t catch her this time around, be sure to see her before she (hopefully) is catapulted to superstar status internationally later this year.
Watch Rebecca’s live cover of Drake’s ‘Take Care’ below:
I am so glad I went to see Rebecca at the Theatre Royal. I loved every minute of it. How amazing that girl is, she is stunningly attractive, so talented, amazing voice with a sincereness that not many girls of her age have. I new from that first note on XFactor that she had something and voted every week. Well Done Rebecca I will continue to support you in every way and always attend your concerts in London. I so wish you well you are an inspiration to all young girls. I hope your family are very proud of you I know I would be.
I went to the concert and I have to say that her voice is really amazing. I liked the stage and the atmosphere was absolutely perfect.
I have to say that I was expecting more cover songs. A lot of people sitting around me were commenting on this too. The songs that made her famous. That made us luve her. Where were these songs? Amazing Grace and Sweet Dreams and Feeling Good…. we were all wishing to listen to them. I know she said she didn’t want covers in her first album. But during the concert of her first tour….
And after the last song she left the stage and abruptly the lights were switched on and music started. Am I the only one that expect to have the chance to call back a singer on the stage after the “last” song?
So I left the Theatre very pleased end enchanted by her voice, but with a little bit of disappointment and bitterness, holding the rose that was supposed to be thrown to her once back on stage… but she didn’t come back.
Could I please ask you why my comment has been not published? thank you.