Anthems: The Concert

Kerry Ellis and Brian May's (as they have equal billing) tour Anthems:The Concert kicked off last night at the Royal Albert Hall, with extra support from Adam Pascal, string quartet Escala, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the West End Chorus. It was awesome.

Brian May explained at the very beginning the evening was about the combination of rock music and theatre, developing from Hair to Spring Awakening. The first half was primarily performed by the West End Chorus (whose soloists in 'The Show Must Go On' and the Hair meadly were wonderful, but unfortunately unnamed) and Adam Pascal. Pascal really, really surprised me; of course, he did songs from Rent-hearing 'One Song Glory' live is really wonderful. However, the two songs that really stood out for me were 'Flying Home' from Songs for a New World and 'You'll Never Walk Alone'-which was honestly stunning. Escala were very talented, but seemed a little out of place; although I guess as a electric string quartet they embodied classical music/rock crossover.

The second half brought with it Kerry Ellis, and was pretty much the Anthems album on stage. It began with 'Dangerland', a song that sounds massive on the CD (if that's possible) and was even more incredible on stage. Other stand-outs were 'You Have to Be There', a song from the musical Kristina, 'Somebody to Love', 'No-One But You' and 'I Love it When You Call', featuring the lead singer of The Feeling and writer of the song, Dan Gillesepe. Brian May's rendition of 'Love of My Life' was also pretty amazing; in my opinion he could have done with singing more in the concert, as opposed to just playing gratuitous guitar riffs (just my opinion, but I personally feel a few songs could have been left without the extra guitar). Of course, 'Defying Gravity' and 'Anthem' bought the house down.

Kerry Ellis does seem to have a pretty flawless voice; you tend to expect a little leeway for error when you see performers live; but Ellis just sounds perfect. She's a very natural performer with a pretty enormous range, and hopefully performing alongside Brian May will enable her to reach people that would not necessarily see musicals like Les Miserables or Wicked, although she did of course originate a role in We Will Rock You. As I said, May's voice is still pretty solid and his guitar playing got massive applause (I'll admit that I got increasingly nonplussed; he's a guitarist...playing electric guitar is what he does), so he still seems to have the Queen-effect.

Give or take a few negatives (again the sound was off at the very beginning with the Chorus, and some of the audience around me could have done with learning some manners) Anthems: The Concert was a really good night out. It really showed off some powerhouse voices and hopefully will go on to have success across the country.