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  • Manchester Show Review - By Road Reporter Jenny!

    Here is the Manchester Official Road Reporter review from Josh's Straight To You Tour by jennyallen03! Want to enter to win for a chance to be Josh's Official Road Reporter? Get all the contest details HERE!


    It was a beautiful and blinding morning (a rarity for this part of England) but even rain and cloud wouldn't have dampened my mood as, that evening, I would be meeting Josh! It still felt as surreal as the moment I had first read the email telling me I'd won.

    It was the morning of my birthday and I'd just been checking my emails before getting ready for a meal with Grobies before the Hammersmith concert. As I opened them one by one I noticed one from the Josh Groban team... and then I saw the heading. I stared at it with a mixture of disbelief and excitement (I never win anything) and just to make sure my eyes weren't tricking me or that it wasn't some horrible computer error, I ran over to FoJG to double check the competition winners thread. And there my name was, no mistaking. As well as some recognisable names of lucky winners who had won for other shows. Definitely one amazing birthday present!! I swear in that moment I could have run all the way to the Apollo and probably around it a fair few times too... had I been wearing something other than pyjamas that is. The Hammersmith meal and concert were amazing as expected and it was great meeting up with Grobie friends after so long.
     
    But now the big day had come. I watched the clock, anxiously waiting for the minute that mum would phone and we'd be on our way to Manchester. I wanted to be there early. The email said 6.30pm but I've driven to Manchester before and had got lost in a maze of one-way streets in the city centre. I was not gonna let that happen again. There was no way I was gonna miss this!

    We arrived at the venue relatively unscathed, minus a minor detour that nearly took us back on the motorway and off in the direction of Birmingham, and were still a couple of hours early, so we headed off in the direction of the box office to confirm times and collect passes etc. At that point I think we were too early even for them, they'd not yet been told of the evening's happenings, but after a brief meeting up with the other grobies and getting a rough idea of times from a security guard by the buses, we headed off in search of coffee and food. It was such a shame that we couldn't join the other grobies for a meal beforehand but the timings the security guard had given only gave us maybe 45 minutes and my experience of restaurants is generally that this is not long enough to order, receive, eat a meal, and manage to get the bill. We had to make the tough decision to find somewhere quick on our own.
     
    The time was drawing near and we loitered in the entrance hall watching out for any sign of Darren or other lucky m&g winners. Soon I spied someone with a pass and we went back to collect ours from the box office (by this time we'd been in so much that they'd already grabbed them as soon as they saw me approaching). Soon the moment was there and we were led to the point where we would soon meet Josh. I was second in line.

    Darren told us about what would happen and laid out some ground rules for when Josh came out... no kissing or hugging as it's flu season. As we waited I heard voices around the corner. I recognised one immediately, and at that moment I think everything went out of my head. It had sounded so easy in theory. Cool, calm, collected... Breathe, be normal. What could possibly go wrong? Well I definitely had the breathing down, i was well experienced in breathing, but the others... well... as calm and collected as I tried to be, I have never been cool, or normal. And as I moved from the line towards him, the calm and collected me was lost, uncool me prevailed, and I said something completely incoherent about the handshake as my mouth spouted words my brain hadn't quite finished forming, and it all came out in something not quite more than a whisper. Well done Jen, you are an idiot. And that balanced Libran thing I thought I had going... yeah... out the window, scales completely tipped.

    Josh was gracious as always, taking the photo of himself and Angelique I had brought for him to sign, and I managed to stay normal for a split second as I stood side by side with Josh and got that photo that I have waited over 5 years for. Those few moments, as brief as they were (and my stupidness aside) were wonderful. I don't think it has still sunk in. I want to thank Josh for being so nice about the whole thing, but what else would we expect?

    Anyway, conscious of the fact I didn't want to keep others from their moments, and as my brain hadn't quite fully recovered, I moved fairly quickly out of there as mum and the others took their turns. Although she says otherwise, mum seemed slightly less phased by the situation, managing to form complete sentences and get her photo with Josh. Looking back I wish I had remembered to take a breath (I guess I need practice at that breathing thing after all) and stayed with mum to witness her moment. A woman kind of ushered me out the door and I was gone. There was no turning back.

    We stopped to get a few things from the merch stand (yay for mugs, I can never have enough mugs) and walked into the hall to await the start of the evening's performance. That's when the news came: no photos or videos inside the hall. At all. Well that was gonna be a problem. London had been totally relaxed about the whole thing and, had I not left my camera in Sheffield following my dad's birthday weekend a few days before the London concert, I would have been snapping away like crazy. Now with camera firmly in hand I was faced with the possibility that it wasn't going to happen. We told the steward that I had a photo pass and, as she had no idea about what it meant or what the rules were, she took the pass and went to ask someone else while we sat down. (Luckily I hadn't stuck it on yet as it could have been slightly tricky otherwise.)

    Our seats were great! We were rown L and in the seating plan it looked as though we would be slightly off to the side but we were practically dead centre!! My sister (who bought the tickets as I was at work) done good!

    The steward found us in our seats and said that I could take photos (yay) but only for songs 2, 3 and 4, and only if I stood right at the back with the professional photographer, or on the opposite side... still at the back. Well, since I had already noticed I was sat bang in the centre of a row, and although I had prepared myself for this eventuality, I was not looking forward to that moment when I would have to return to my seat and disturb however many concert-goers both in that row and behind me during the show. And as my camera is not as snazzy as some and it's a couple of years old now, I was worried about the quality my poor little digital camera was going to get from the back of the hall, with no flash, and with what was going to be a crappy zoom. And with that in mind I apologise profusely that that quality of my photos is not as good as I would have liked.

    5 minutes before the start I took up my position at the back of the hall and, as that final recording played and the lights dimmed, I forgot about the camera and settled down to enjoy a fabulous night of Josh.
     
    Well he was fantastic as ever. As the band moved from their instrumental of Straight to You, and Josh walked out on stage and settled himself at the piano, the hall erupted into screams and cheers. I couldn't help but feel immensely proud. I always love to see the reception Josh gets here as he's still relatively unknown.

    The view from the back was also quite special too and, although my camera struggled with the distance, I could see the reaction of the audience through each song, the sneaky cameras snapping away, and the full effect of the glow sticks that had been handed out before the start.

    After the ever-amazing performances of Changing Colours, February Song, You Are Loved and Oceano it was time to take my seat and, although the people around and behind were kind as I squeezed past to get back to my seat, I was relieved to be finally sat down, back with mum and ready to enjoy the rest of the concert.

    As I had expected the view from our seats was amazing and throughout the concert, despite me not wanting to "rock the boat", we, too, took some sneaky photos from the comfort of our seats (being sat in the middle of a row kind of helped... try and reach me there, stewards! Ha!).

    During Higher Window the glowsticks were out in full force and Josh joked about it being choreographed and that we should get some sort of rhythmic gymnastics thing going with it, a point which he illustrated so wonderfully with a little choreographed routine of his own... something for us to bear in mind for next time maybe? Lol, wouldn't that be something!
    A highlight for mum was Josh singing Alla Luce Del Sole. It's always been a favourite of hers, and she proceeded to hum along loudly.

    The Q&A with the audience was also great and Josh was asked to sing his favourite childrens song, how he would explain what he does to aliens, and was asked by one guy what he could do to make his girlfriend love him as much as she loved Josh. When he answered "no" to Josh's questions of whether he could sing, cook or play an instrument, Josh kind of shrugged and said "Well..." He also made a joke about how his next album could be a collection of songs entitled "Josh Groban Oversings the Childrens' Classics". The audience loved it.

    Following a beautiful performance of Mi Mancherai featuring the amazing Christian Hebel, an amazing rendition of Live and Let Die by the Groband, and the astonishment of many audience members as Josh came out and played the drums, the energy of the whole hall was amazing and, through Voce Existe Em Mim, Weeping and Machine, many of the audience members were on their feet, clapping and dancing to the music and waving their glow sticks. It was a great sight to see and the Josh and the groband had big grins on their faces.

    Malc (the guy who had asked Josh the question about how he could get his girlfriend to love him), his girlfriend, and the two little girls who had asked Josh the question about the children's song all joined Josh on stage on the sofas as Josh poured wine, and milk, and serenaded them with Broken Vow and Per Te.

    When Josh reached You Raise Me Up he had the audience singing along and made Jokes about how it had been recorded so much here and about Westlife.

    As the show drew to a close Josh ended with Hidden Away and finally Smile, and as he sang that final note every single person was straight up on their feet, clapping away. No nervous checking around to see if everyone else was doing it and slowly rising to join the rest. There was no maybe about it. Josh had deserved it and everyone in that audience felt the same. It was a fabulous end to a fabulous show.

    I want to thank Josh and the Groband, Sarah and the team and everyone involved for making this a memorable experience. Thank you so much!!

Submitted by jgSarah on