Preston

[Michele Monro]

I thought it a good idea that instead of me prattling on about the show at Preston I would ask someone that was there in the audience to give us their opinion. I like to give a fair and truthful evaluation of the event but sometimes it is quite hard to be objective - after all he is my brother! (He's not heavy though).

"Last night I went to see Matt Jnr at the Charter Theatre in Preston. This was the first time I'd seen Matt do both halves of the show, which I loved – I know he finds it hard work but I'm sure the audience prefers to see more Matt than (quite frankly sub standard) support acts.

The Charter Theatre – a fairly modern theatre in comparison to many on the tour – was around a third full which was a pity, but I'm not sure anybody is going to the theatre much at the moment. I happened to be at the same theatre only two days before and there were even fewer in the audience, although that was for Basil Brush, (well I have got six year old twins and a friend in the cast) who should have been quite a draw for children and families so Matt should at least be pleased that he was more popular than a puppet!

It was nice to hear some great new material. I've always preferred Matt Jnr singing material not associated with his father best, but the show started with two numbers from Matt Snr's Capitol period which sounded great! As did the Neil Diamond Medley and the tribute song to his father. I won't say any more so as not to spoil any surprises for those still to see Matt.

For this tour I thought that the balance between Matt Snr songs and Matt Jnr songs was perfect this year – helped by the extended running time.
Matt told me afterwards that the stage monitors were not working very well and he often struggled to hear himself, something that I'm sure most of the audience were not aware of, but exasperating for Matt himself – the perils of touring and having to set up quickly. There are many artists who would have thrown a wobbly and refused to carry on in such circumstances (or at very least have thrown something at the monitor engineer- possibly a musician!) but Matt carried on regardless.
Considering that though, the sound front of house was very good even if the sound on stage wasn't.

It was also nice to get a quick mention from Matt personally during the show in the form of an in joke "Not many of you will know about this, apart from a certain Richard Moore" during the intro to one song.
All in all it was a highly entertaining show, which from the audience reaction entertained everyone – even if Matt wasn't comfortable. Surely not the same show as described by disgruntled of Edinburgh last week!
Richard"