REVIEW: X-Factor Live Tour

BIC, Bournemouth

By Allan Jones

AFTER a few small gigs in intimate venues over the last few days I was at the BIC for the big production X-Factor tour on Monday, and what a production it is. The venue was pretty well packed with a younger crowd who had obviously come along to see and hear their favourites from the TV show.

The VT rolled to start the show with clips of the journey each act took to reach the latter stages of the competition and win a place on this tour. The live show then started with two songs from 5 After Midnight quickly followed by a single song from Emily Middlemass before Honey G hit the stage for crowd rousing versions of Men In Black and Jump.

With a total of eight acts all doing at least two songs all in the space of a couple of hours it was always going to be a jam packed evening and it was like an avalanche of entertainment. Ryan Lawrie, Four of Diamonds, Saara Aalto (with a spectacular entrance), and Sam Lavery all followed in quick succession and all delivered great performances that were just as good as many of the acts currently in the charts.

After a short break all of the acts appeared again delivering solo, duet or group numbers before the winner of last year's X-Factor Matt Terry. Traditionally the winner takes the final slot of the night and delivers a mini gig of five songs rather than just one or two numbers. Matt did just that with a set that included a version of Prince's Purple Rain and Ed Sheeran composed When X-Mass Comes Around, ending with the ominously titled Writing On The Wall. One final number with all of the artists, a massive confetti cannon blast and it was all over for another year.

This was without a doubt a great stage production based around performers who all have the potential to be successful in their own right. The X-Factor show and tour is a fantastic platform for any young artist and gives them the opportunity to go on to bigger and better things, let's hope that they are given that rare thing that is the time to develop and make a career in what is traditionally a cut throat business.