Gravity

2011 was a rotten year but things like Disney and Westlife keep me smiling. Around this time last year Westlife were touring the Gravity album.

 Of course I went to the concert not once but three times! People often slag Westlife off for the amount of covers they do or the amount of ballads or the fact they "can't dance and just sit on stools"  well if you go to a Westlife concert you find a completely different band than one of their generic television performances. The concerts complete with colourful sets are lively and full of surprises. Each night is different, there's different interactions, different jokes from the band and even spontaneous sing songs some nights!

These pictures are a mix from the three nights I went last year.

I had three cameras going so lots of pictures across three nights. But the second night I had brought a new camera that had a bigger zoom so although I was seating behind the hundreds of standing fans I still managed to get great close up shots like this one:

They had some unusual stage sets last year like giant apples that I still don't get the relevance of but how and ever:

There was another section where it was almost like they were standing on an aquarium but instead of fish and elephant was going across the front. Again I don't really get the relevance but whatever it's Westlife I didn't really care and by the third night I'd decided to call the elephant Lumpy just because:

More kind of strange stage sets were hot air balloons but then they were singing Home at this point so maybe they were going to use the hot air balloons to get their?!

It was around about this point in the concert one of the interactions took place. Nicky always reads some of the banners that the crowd bring and the band have a chat about them:

The second night I went Shane even did a spot of Irish dancing:

One of the best parts of the Westlife concerts is the medley section. They each take a recent chart song and basically show the side of Westlife you'll only see in the concerts. No ballads and Westlife dancing (yes I said Westlife and dancing in the one sentence) and rocking it out! Last year the medley included their versions of Coldplay's "Viva la Vida", Rihanna's "Only Girl in the World", Black Eyed Peas "The Time", Lady Ga Ga's "Bad Romance" and Kaiser Chiefs "I Predict a Riot" complete with fireworks and fire at relevant times!

I also loved the costumes for this section because they all had Walt Disney World t-shirts on. Disney and Westlife all in the one spot:

Westlife rockin it:

One of my favourite parts of the concert last year was the section where they recreated that famous picture of the builders on the beam at the Rockefeller Centre in New York. They had their own beam on stage:

This then rose up and floated on out over the audience carry Westlife with it:

And the best bit they stopped just at the point where the seating started to rise so the first night I went the beam stopped about four or five rows in front of me meaning Westlife were extremely close:

This was also one of those interactive points of the concert. The first night Nicky took someones phone from the audience and rang someone on the phone. Whoever he rang didn't answer so he left a message saying it was Nicky Byrne from Westlife and he was sorry they couldn't make the concert but that they were going to be in Cork during the summer if they wanted to go then! Could you imagine turning your phone on to get a message like that it was funny!

The second night it was my birthday so I brought along my own banner. I was sitting roughly the same area except under where the beam stopped but Kian saw my banner I was happy:

The third night at this point they started chatting about what should be in the medley on the next tour and having a random sing songs of songs that might be good for the medley! See something different every night!

Back to the stage and on with the show:

At this point on the third night I went they started slagging an Irish radio presenter who was in the audience. Apparently he had been slagging them on the radio and their manager Louis Walsh dared him to come to a concert and see if his opinion changed. Well they announced this to the audience and he got booed out of it. It was hilarious!

The last section more crazy sets with lips, legs and strips:

Then the sad part the last song of the night

Then the bows at the end of another great concert and the goodbyes until  next year