Last night, Kellie and I experienced Guy once more.. and whoa. The guy does not disappoint. He’s still the same kinda Guy he always was - ready to intersperse random chatter about his boots, jeans falling off and what not, in between his songs. This was a rather unique concert; he played a few songs that are unreleased at this point, i.e. we got to hear the makings of his next album. There was a rather different sound, as there was a violinist on stage. Something that has always impressed me is just that Guy has sung with a variety of things behind him - just a guitar, a full rock band, an orchestra, a marching band, a combination of the above, or sometimes nothing at all.. and has always sounded brilliant.
So some of the new music has a different sort of groove to it, there was one song in particular I really liked, which was a duet.. definitely looking forward to hearing more of that. I don’t think there was a definitive set list for the rest of the night. The night was marketed as a “Guy, live by request” night, and he had asked the Internet for it’s wishes.
Obviously, the band and he had prepared for certain combinations of songs and knew from the online polling, what sort of songs were generally going to be most requested, so at many points, he simply turned to the audience and asked us what we wanted to hear - and not just his own music either! At one point, he sung a bit of Umbrella, and in true Guy fashion, integrated some of his own lyrics in.. “Chris Brown is lucky… I wasn’t there.. “. His ability to improvise and spin lyrics out that actually fit the the tune never ceases to amaze me. One fan had got in contact with Guy and persuaded him to sing Sweetest berry as a dedication to his wife who was in the audience and happened to be celebrating her 50th birthday that evening. In the seat to my right. So she was integrated into the song too, and had an experience she’ll probably never forget.
There was a trip down memory lane, as Guy did a medley of songs from his Idol days, which I much enjoyed.. although, two that I really enjoy; Hello and The way you look tonight weren’t part of it. He also did a few songs from his first album, which brought back a lot of thoughts for me, as that was around when I first was introduced to Guy and began digging his groove. Still one of my favourites, My beautiful friend was dedicated to a sick girl in hospital that was listening via a phone link up. He tailored it especially for her and it was quite stirring. On that note, we were privileged to hear Perfection, a song he wrote for his wife, Jules, and sang to her on their wedding day. That was simply amazing; it basically was about the idea that God had got the angels together and decided to make a perfect woman, and went on to describe some of his characteristics, and how the angels wanted to keep her but someone on earth needed her.. ahh beautiful. Some of the final lines “When she was 21, she changed someone’s life… when she was 28, she became his wife.” She was in the audience too, I cannot imagine how she felt.. I was trying to picture it, to know that you’ve moved someone that much, to mean so much to someone. Just wow.
The night ended really well too - a massive encore, where he went and played the drums for a while and encouraged his drummer and bass guitarist to take the mic and the limelight for a few songs. I love that he pushes his band up whenever he gets the chance. He finished with a series of soul songs, mostly from his Memphis album, which was some good grooving! I realised afterwards, the entire set was 3+ hours - probably the most Guy I’ve got to experience in a single session, woo! Thanks to Kellie for an awesome night
concert, events, guy sebastian, music