We arrive beneath the shadow of the towering construction site that is to be the new Wembley Stadium and shuttle past the heavy security enforcement officiers and in to the demolition site they call Wembley Arena.
This has for a long time been my least favourite venue for live music, with it's terrible seating alignments and rubbish 'aircraft hangar' accoustics. However, given the choice of witnessing the energetic Miss Spears in this venue or touting my ticket and witnessing severall Stella Artois instead - I choose to enter.
Given the price to see the old lady of pop Madonna at Earls Court is between £50-£150, I do not think that I have been overcharged to be here, as my tickets has only weighed in at £27.50 (plus £5 charges of course).
The tabloids on the morning of this performance are united in slating Miss Spears for miming her entire set on Monday and cited possible reasons as being the late addition of that date to the tour or poor ticket sales or Britneys late arrival in to the country. The most likely excuse though is that some of the dance routines in the set are so energetic and high octane that to actually sing at the same time would really show up the mediocrity of her voice.
So with this in mind I was not as enthusiastic upon taking my seat as I could have been - the seat was ok though, upstairs half-way along with the stage to my right, if you know the Arena.
We opened in a flash of light and pumping sound and a ringmaster type clown fellow talking some rubbish about welcoming us to the Onyx Hotel (name of the tour) which I didn't remember booking in to! Then drum roll and more fire and smoke and Britney scuttled on surrounded by dancers and mimed her way through Toxic and then quickly on to Unprotected.
The audience was very supportive, with lots of cheers and chanting, but this slowly ebbed as a series of costume changes, video clips and dance routines broke up the flow. This and a reluctance to perform the hits that were much awaited in preference to churning out some relatively unknown album tracks. There was however a rather bizarre rendition of Hit me baby one more time, which came across as part opera and part country and western.
There were a couple of songs that were quite clearly not mimed and these were distinctive by the poor quality of the singing involved - somewhat strange when every other song sounded pitch perfect.
This is a shame as most people do not just come for the 'show' but to hear their favourites perform well known songs in a live format. We though had to make do with warm-up artists Jada Pinkett-Smith (what the hell is that all about) and JC Chasez (a-hem) giving us mercifully short sets.
The stage show though was entertaining enough, with plenty of pyrotechnics and stuff going on and the dancing was ok if a little laboured at times (zombies anyone). We were treated to an elaborate array of dazzling costumes (yes, that includes the near see through one from the toxic video) and Britney on a swing high above the stage (!).
After 75 minutes Britney made her excuses and left the stage to rest her voice (he he) prior to the encore and I made my own excuses and slipped outside into the rain and the long haul home.
This was not the night that I had hoped for and has put me off going to a 'live' concert again for a while, but never mind, tomorrow is another day and another sell-out crowd will pay to keep see the princess of pop 'perform'.
My advice is to wait for the DVD or video to be released from this tour as this will look and sound better than being there.
Pictures of Britney Spears - Live And More (DVD)
Costume not included at Wembley
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Doesn't sound good but don't be put off from attending a live concert - most are wonderful. Maureen
leecross 28.10.2005 20:16
The "Disadvantages: How much was actually live?" made me giggle and I just had to read your review. I think you've got it just right. Well done - Very Helpful. Lee.
lukus187 18.04.2005 01:37
would have given ya better rating but this girl (Britney) really sucks
Since she first exploded onto the pop music scene in the summer of 1998, Britney Spears ... more
has dominated the world. In this collectable, must-have home video, Britney shows just what she can do like nobody else. Who wouldn't want to own the jaw-dropping, ...
![Britney Spears-Live and More [DVD]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78036778.jpg "Britney Spears-Live and More [DVD]")
Apr 28th, 2004
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