One Love Manchester: the Perfect Tribute

On 4th June, Manchester and the world came together to pay tribute to the 22 victims who were killed in the terror attack at the Manchester Arena. Ariana Grande, whose concert these fans attended,  decided to put on a concert to raise money for the victims' families. And what a concert it was!

In the space of a couple of days, Ariana managed to organise a spectacular show with some big names: Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Take That and Miley Cyrus to name a few, including Ariana herself. The most noteworthy thing is that Take That kindly agreed to perform at this show, despite having a show in Birmingham scheduled for that evening (they were first on the setlist so they could attend both shows).

I think the thing that stood out for me was how appropriate the song choices were for a concert like this. Coldplay chose Fix You, Take That chose Giants and Rule the World, Black Eyed Peas sang Where is the Love?, Robbie Williams sang Angels and Little Mix chose Wings (which includes the lyrics "We won't let nobody bring us down"). Ariana Grande sung her well known hits, revealing that the mother of one of the victims stated that they "would not want anyone to cry, they would rather everyone had the chance to hear the hits."

The song choices were not the only things that were perfect; the tributes were beautiful too. For example, Robbie Williams sang his hit Strong but changed the lyrics to "Manchester we're strong," and "We're still singing our songs." Other tributes included an important speech from Pharrell and Coldplay covering Don't Look Back in Anger, which has become an anthem of unity among Manchester. Ariana Grande performed her hit One Last Time, along with a beautiful cover of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, with them both being released (or in One Last Time's case, re-released) as charity singles, to raise money for the Manchester fund. However, I liked Katy Perry's tribute, which I didn't notice until after she had performed; her dress was decorated with pictures of the 22 victims of the tragedy. Beautiful.

There was a surprise that was promised during this concert and that surprise was Liam Gallagher. After performing the classic Oasis song Rock and Roll Star and his new single Wall of Glass, he invited Chris Martin to join him to perform a moving rendition of Live Forever. Of course, there was hope that Noel would join him but he didn't. Now, I don't know about you but I am quite glad that there was not an Oasis reunion, as it would have detracted us away from the whole point of this concert: to pay tribute to those who lost their lives on that day.

Overall, I thought this concert was brilliantly put together by Ariana Grande and her team and it just showed that music is a wonderful tool for bringing people together with a sense of unity. It was popular among people at home; apparently an estimated 11 million watched the show and it has become the most watched show of 2017 so far. As for the funds? Over £10 million was raised for the Manchester One Love fund.

Em
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Live Review: Take That Wonderland Live at the Genting arena 05/05/2017

I had previously seen Take That 3 times and with their shows getting bigger and better, I was wondering how they were going to top their last tour, which was the III tour in 2015. They answered that for me...they were going to try something they had never done...they were going to perform in the round (a stage in the centre of the arena).

Despite never performing in the round before, Take That managed to accomplish what they set out to do, which was to perform a show. And what a show it was. Technically, it could be seen as the 25th anniversary tour, seeing as their debut album was released 25 years ago this year. Therefore, it was a nice touch that as well as performing songs that fans know and love, such as Patience and the iconic anthem, Never Forget, they also added album tracks from previous studio albums, such as Beautiful World from...err...Beautiful World (2006), Lovelife from III (2014) and Underground Machine from Progress (2011). They also had nods to Robbie Williams' time in the band, from using graphics that resembled the Progress album artwork to a cast member dressed in a rabbit costume that seemed very familiar, due to it resembling Robbie's You Know Me rabbit costume.

As well as old classics, fans also got to experience new tracks from Wonderland live in concert for the first time, from the singles Giants, Cry and New Day, to album tracks, such as Superstar, Hope and It's All For You.  Meanwhile, whenever I anticipate a Take That concert, I always think, "Will they be able to top the last one?" Last time they had an underwater scene, complete with jelly fish hanging from the ceiling. The time before that, they had a massive robot (and Robbie Williams rejoining). So, was I worried? Well...to be honest...it's Take That, of course each show gets better and better. For example, during It's All For You, they had some sort of carousel arrangement, with various things, such as a swan, acrobats and a bed, moving around in a circle. They also had screens that moved up and down and displayed graphics that would change for each song (for Cry, the graphics were bubbles, for Beautiful World, the graphics were planets etc.)

Overall, Take That did not disappoint. Despite the fact that they are considered a man band, they still have fun filled energy that most man bands could only dream of. With catchy songs, spectacular staging and colourful costumes, it really felt that you were being transported to Wonderland.

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