December 2018 is the month that Claire Richards’ fans’ wildest dreams came true – a tour all of her own across the UK, supporting the impending release of the album My Wildest Dreams. She promised a few surprises along the way, and boy, did she (and her band and the team around her) deliver. Since I was flying in for the shows, I decided to go all in, and see all 4. This is my tour diary detailing the highs (sustaining notes and standing ovations) and the lows (lost tickets!) of Ms. Richards first solo tour…
Glasgow, St Luke’s, 2 December 2018
Glasgow was cold and very, very wet when I arrived on the Saturday before the gig – much like it was when I left home 18 years ago. I decided to go for a bit of an exploration to see what bars were near the venue, and, as I did, saw that the tour bus had already arrived and was parked outside St Luke’s, which was lit up a very nice shade of purple.
The rain on the Sunday of the gig was hammering down, so when my friend and I got to the venue, we went into the bar next door to have a drink and dry off rather than waiting and getting soaked outside. There were a few (very, very dedicated) fans already outside waiting patiently to be let in so that they could get front row. By the time they opened the doors and we got in, we ended up in the 3rd row just off to the side – not too bad.
The stage was all setup for Claire, with a large ‘C’ and ‘R’ at either side and similar floral arrangements to her album artwork on the stage surrounding the live band. But, before we got Claire, we had a support act…
He came on stage, played a couple of tunes, did a South African accent and warmed the crowd up for Claire. He was pretty good, so you should check him out on Spotify. His name was A.J Brown and the woman sitting next to me looked him up on social media but could only find a football player with the same name, so from here on in, the one from the stage shall be known as A.J. Brown (not the football player).
After his set, it was time for the main act, and the show I’ve been waiting since One For Sorrow to see – Claire Richards, solo, on stage for at least an hour. Bliss. She was definitely a little nervous, and fair enough since it was her first proper solo show, but she sounded incredible all night – even during the ‘talky’ bits as she puts it – the bits she apparently least enjoys and forgets her words to. Speaking of forgetting her words, she did just that during Deep Waters, completely missing a chorus by my memory. However, unless you really knew the song, you’d never have known because the band and her backing singers followed on with her all the way through. Very impressive.
The Glasgow crowd made for a good atmosphere and really seemed to warm to the new tracks from the album as well as the ones they’d already heard, and a few STEPS classics. She sang a slowed version of One For Sorrow where everyone did the hand movements at the chorus. It looked like the ‘chair dancing’ caught her by surprise though, and she joined in on the second chorus.
From the start of the show to about a quarter of the way through, I kept thinking to myself “something about her looks different” but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then it dawned on me, I wasn’t wearing my glasses, so she had no facial features! I fished them out of my bag and suddenly she was so close it was like being on stage with her.
One of my highlights from this was hearing her perform the song that she sang at the STEPS audition. Hearing it, it’s no wonder she got the job. She does such a good version of this song they probably just sent everyone else waiting at the audition home after hearing her. River Deep, Mountain High (the Celine version of course) is absolutely epic – everyone was on their feet.
All in all an incredible first performance that left everyone buzzing for more. So, rather than head back out in the rain, we went for some drinks and then really lucked out because as we were leaving the bar, my friend says to me “Isn’t that Claire over there?”. I, by this point, had taken my glasses off and couldn’t see that far away so we decided to have a wander over to find out. As it turned out, it was her, and she was standing having photos taken and signing things for fans who had waited in the rain. What a sweetheart.
I then remembered I had a t-shirt in my bag that I had made for her with a design that said “Everyone thinks I’m ‘Claire from STEPS’ Nobody knows I’m Elvis” (because she was born on the same day Elvis died and apparently always joked that she was Elvis reincarnated). It took a moment or two but after reading it and asking “Is this just for me?” I think she got the joke.
16 years after I last saw her and had a photo with her I got to get an updated version which I am very happy with!
A great start to what was to be a great week.
Birmingham, Town Hall, 3 December 2018
After waking up in Glasgow, getting some food and getting on the road, we set off for Birmingham. Whilst in the car, we decided that for tonight, we’d go really far back in time and get some TSD t-shirts made. If you’ve never tried to design a t-shirt on a laptop in a moving car, don’t do it. It’s not easy – every pothole wiped out bits of design that then needed reworking.
It was a long old ride between Glasgow and Birmingham, but my friend and I made it pass quickly with some top tunes from one of my favourite playlists I ever made – Best of Claire Richards.
After we found the venue and got inside, we sorted out the merchandise purchase and headed to our seats. This was a way bigger venue than Glasgow and it looked like some people had decided not to brave the weather but stay home, leaving some empty seats dotted around downstairs and in the balcony. I think this really affected the mood of the crowd as they just didn’t seem quite as enthusiastic as Glasgow had been the night before.
Tonight was the night that Claire managed to get all the words right in Deep Waters (which, to be fair, do go around in circles a little) and she told the crowd as much, wiping her brow in relief at having gotten through it with no mistakes.
Lucky us, we got to say hello afterwards and have her sign the TSD t-shirts. She looked a bit confused initially as she was trying to read what it said in the corner rather than focussing on the main image but her manager definitely thought they were funny (closet TSD fan from the past perhaps!?). So she signed them, saying we must be freezing (we were) – Owen later commenting on her ‘beautiful penmanship and handwriting’.
Two gigs down, only two to go – it was at this point I was starting to wish that she was doing at least 10 dates!
Liverpool, St George’s Hall, 4 December 2018
The initial few hours before the Liverpool gig go down as some of my most stressful of the week. Turns out, my friend, Owen, had misplaced our tickets, and didn’t know where they were. So he was turning his house upside down, and I was calling the venue to see if we’d be able to buy tickets on the door if we needed. Turns out, there were no ticket sales on the door, which seems like a missed opportunity to me because it wasn’t sold out and that meant that unless you bought tickets on the Saturday you wouldn’t have been able to receive your paper tickets on time. I was on Twitter, messaging everyone I thought might have tickets and generally starting to have a bit of a meltdown. There was almost a murder committed in the name of Claire Richards tickets…
Thankfully, we discovered that Owen had left the tickets in the car he’d swapped with a friend, so, after a quick detour, we picked them up, we got on the road to head to Liverpool. Note to self: always check Owen’s tickets at least 48 hours in advance.
I love Liverpool. I don’t think I’d ever been before going to see Claire, but the crowd at this venue was incredible – up for a good time and very vocal. It was a lovely concert room, very ornate and very intimate – there wasn’t much room in those seats and I’m not very tall! You could tell from the moment A.J. Brown (not the football player) came on stage – this crowd was here for a party.
Claire got her first standing ovation after One For Sorrow, which is fairly early in the set-list and was a lot faster than either of the other two venues had gotten out of their seats for her. The crowd went absolutely nuts for the version of All Out Of Love that she sang and there was one very impressive guy towards the right of the stage who knew all the moves.
There was a classic moment during this show where, after leaving the stage the first time, before her encore, Claire tried to exit on the left of the stage, only to realise there was no exit that way, so she had to run across the entire back of the stage to the right hand side! She laughed it off when she returned to the stage, saying that she knew the way out now.
Our luck continued and, hanging out by the stage door inside, her manager announced that she’d come out briefly to sign and for photos but it couldn’t be for too long as she had an early morning wake-up call for a TV show the next day (which turned out to be Christmas Carols with Alfie Boe on ITV). True to word, she appeared a little while later and happily stood and posed for pics and signed things for fans. She told us then that she thought the Liverpool gig had been incredible and you could see it written on her face – she was actually glowing from the inside out. She asked if we were going to the London gig too and I said that yes, I was, but this was Owen’s final stop.
We got a couple of pics and we said goodbye, picked up our coats and headed downstairs and outside. The security guards who were still there opened the venue front door for us (we’d been there that long that they’d shut them) and, as Owen stepped outside in front of me, I heard a brief scream and then a groan. It turns out there were a bunch of fans waiting outside too and their disappointment at us not being Claire was palpable. Doh!
Claire said later on Twitter that it had been incredible and she was speechless, and I can see why – this was, by far, the best show yet!
London, Union Chapel, 6 December 2018
With one day in-between Liverpool and London that left plenty of time to take a leisurely bus ride from Owen’s place in Manchester down to London. Since he wasn’t able to come to the London gig I was doing this bit of the road-trip on my lonesome. I spent the journey listening to my newly created MP3s of 7 Billion and River Deep Mountain High on repeat, almost destroying my battery in the process.
After getting to London and checking in, I went for a wander around the city I used to call home, had a surprise drink with my sister-in-law and decided to have an early night before I got completely sick from all the running around the country. Next morning, I needed to go for a run, and where better to go than to take a run around the venue and see what I was letting myself in for? Turns out, it really is a church and it’s nestled in amongst residential housing – not the first place you’d think of for a show of any kind…
There was one positive thing to come out of Owen having lost the tickets, and that was that during my meltdown, where I was messaging people I thought might have spare tickets, I discovered that the London venue had a membership policy. This membership policy allowed those with memberships, plus 8 guests, access to the ‘early entry’ queue to get into the venue first. I had known nothing about this beforehand and it turned out that the early entry queue access is only available for 8 members and their 8 guests (totalling 48) – and it was all sold out.
Fortunately for me, STEPS fans really are a family, and the wonderful Emma Cook, who I had been messaging on Tuesday about Liverpool tickets, had 2 spots left available that she very kindly gave to myself and my friend Sanne…
Claire’s tour was truly monumental and not just because she’s releasing an album, or was touring solo for the first time, but also because I got to meet people I’ve been friends with for 20 years but never actually met. I first got to know Sanne through the original incarnation of this very website, when she sent me additional Claire pics for it, and we’ve known one another since then but had never done gigs in person. I almost feel like we must have made a pact back in the day to not meet until Claire tours – and now was the time!
Even though I had early entry there was no telling just how quickly the London venue was going to fill up, especially since it’s Claire’s home turf, so I headed down to the venue at 4pm to meet Emma and begin queuing outside. Before long both the pre-entry and the normal queue had started to fill up. Phil came over to say hello and then Emma offered he and his friend Natasha a couple of early entry passes too. Next to arrive was Sanne and then we all settled in for a long wait.
It was cold, it was wet, my bum went numb from sitting on the steps, but finally, just after 7pm the doors opened and we got inside. And what a view… We managed to secure front row centre seats!
I was pretty excited but knew that this meant that if I needed to pee mid-show like I had in Glasgow and Liverpool, there was no leaving my seat. As it turns out, you were only allowed to bring soft drinks into the venue (no booze in the church), which was probably a blessing as that meant I was actually able to see the entire London show without a mid-show toilet break. But perhaps in future, taking into consideration that the original fans (and STEPS) are all older, we can have Claire / STEPS shows with an interval. Just a thought for their management 😉
After making her way on stage to a rapturous applause and singing the first couple of tracks, Claire noted that the venue was lovely and, motioning to the pulpit behind her, joked that she was thinking of coming up on stage and into the pulpit!
It was pretty clear from the start that this was going to be another amazing show with a crowd who were fully ready to let themselves go right from the opening track 7 Billion (which in my mind should have been the next single). We sang and danced our way through Claire’s entire setlist, which included tracks from her new album, a couple of new treatments of STEPS songs, and of course that outstanding version of All Out Of Love but by now had removed the Christmas song My Heart Is Heading Home.
My personal highlights from the tour overall included: 7 Billion, All Out Of Love, Ruins, Brave, Don’t Leave Me In This Love Alone & River Deep Mountain High (RDMH) – especially the little RDMH intro where she did an impression of driving her car… RDMH definitely needs to be released as a bonus track for the album because, well – WOW!
After Claire had done the encore she was presented with flowers on stage from her kids which was a very sweet moment to witness, but it looked like Daisy didn’t want to leave – perhaps the love of the stage is genetic…
With the final show done it was time for some bubbles (for Claire and for us) and so we headed to the bar. Given all the family that she had there we knew she wouldn’t be outside immediately and we had time for at least one bottle to celebrate the tour of the century. I had been all for having a second round but I was out-voted in case we missed the woman herself outside afterwards. So out back we headed to wait for her to make an appearance.
As with the other three shows she came out and made time to take photos with everyone – and there were at least 40 people waiting outside to say hello and congratulate her. Even though she had family inside, and probably wanted to party with them and the kids, she made time to stop which was very much appreciated by all the fans who were there.
All in all, an amazing week of incredible shows for Claire to be very proud of – I’ve pretty much run out of superlatives at this point. If you were there and you enjoyed it, head on over to Twitter and give it a shout-out, and include her team too so that they know just how much you loved it: @_ClaireRichards @welovepop @mrsteveanderson @sonymusicuk
Emma, if you’re reading this, thank you so much for the early entry passes for London, words are not enough (see what I did there?!)!
Checkout all the photos and videos from the tour over at the Photo Gallery.
