Melanie C @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London - 30th September 2000


It's been almost a year since I last saw Melanie perform live.
Almost a year since that unforgettable evening just a few miles away
at The Astoria.  Since then Melanie's solo career has taken off
bigtime and her fame has spread well beyond the ranks of Spice Girls
fans.  At the same time, the media have been growing increasingly
critical of her appearance and ever more intrusive into her private
life.  She's admitted in magazine interviews that things haven't
been all sweetness and light in her private life.  So would all of
this have any effect on her performance?  No.  Can she still put on
an unforgettable show.  Absolutely, no question, yes.


After a 6 hour wait outside in the sun, rain, wind, rain, and
finally sun again, during which time we witnessed Claire arrive by
taxi (imagine if Melanie arrived at her concerts like that!), and
Paul stroll by cool as a cucumber chatting on his phone, the doors
finally opened and after a bit of aggro from the security (when will
they learn that if they want the crowds to stay outside, they need
to keep the doors closed...  do they really expect us all to see
them open the doors and *not* try our best to get inside???) we were
in.  Second row again, just as at last years concert, but this time
over on the left hand side of the stage.  Decided to completely
ignore the official merchandise, having already seen some of the
t-shirts and listened to various comments from people who'd been to
some of the earlier concerts in this tour, and instead settled down
to wait for the show to begin.

OK, so I know support acts have a hard job, trying to drum up some
enthusiasm from a crowd who are only really interested in seeing the
main act.  And in their defence, Tomcat were better than Sub-Circus
(last year's support) - at least one of their songs (Crazy) was
worth listening to...  But still, as warm-up performances go, that
one only just about raised the temperature to lukewarm.  Indeed,
almost the biggest cheer of the night came when the stage crew
removed the big "Tomcat" banner that'd been hanging over the stage
during their performance.  On the bright side, once they were out of
the way, it meant that Melanie was ever closer, and that's no bad
thing :-)


Building up the anticipation just a little more than strictly
neccessary, the concert proper started with a selection of song
clips interspersed with a vaguely intelligible set of announcements
saying (I think) stuff like "Melanie C Live!" and "in association
with [muffled] Radio".  Aww, c'mon, enough with the waiting, let's
just get Melanie on stage!!!  And so, a couple of minutes later
(though it seemed a whole lot longer...), there she was, large as
life.  Speaking of which - sure, she's put on some weight compared
to her early Spice Girls look (though not compared to how she looked
BEFORE joining the group - but how many tabloids bothered to point
that out, hmm?), but if she's a representative of beefy, overweight
women (as the tabloids would have us believe) then all I can say is,
I wish the world was full of women like that...  The journalists
who wrote those articles must have done so with their eyes closed,
because Melanie looks as beautiful now as she has ever done.  And I
just wonder how many journalists would be able to put on such a
powerful and energetic performance even once.  This was the 18th
concert in the tour, yet Melanie looked as fresh as if it were the
first.  So yeah, she's put on a few pounds here and there, but she's
still very fit, very healthy, and very very lovely.

Anyway, tabloid bashing to one side [Ed: aww, I was just beginning
to enjoy myself there...], one final word about her appearance.  A
fairly ordinary looking pair of jeans, and a black top with the
message "I love London" picked out in shiny silver.  Originality
appears to have gone out the window when it comes to her outfits on
this tour, it would seem.  But who cares what she's wearing (besides
those sections of the audience who'd have been quite happy if she'd
been wearing nothing at all, ahem ;-), what about the performance???


Go!

Nothing much to say about this one, except that it's still a great
way to kick off the set and get the crowd, umm, going...


Something's Gonna Happen

I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, and it
still gets me going.  I know it's now been released as a b-side, but
even the best stereo system can't compete with the sheer body
shaking power you get from a concert audio setup.  And this is one
of those songs that demands to be played as loud as possible.  So
thank you Shepherds Bush Empire for not stinting on the audio power!


Northern Star

After the fast-paced start, it's time to slow things down a little,
let the audience sing along, wave their arms in the air, and scream
like crazy when Melanie changed the lyrics from "who is next, who's
gonna steal your crown, you'll see..." to "who is next, who's
gonna steal your crown, Mel C..."  Ahh yes, she knows how to work
the audience, does our Melanie.  And do we care?  Hell no!


Be The One

If Northern Star slowed us down a bit, this had us almost stopped
in our tracks.  But this is no bad thing - the slower things move,
the more time we have to admire Melanie :-)


Closer

Staying on the slow and mellow theme just a little longer, this live
version still doesn't sound anything like as good as the acoustic
version, but it's a lot nicer than the album version.


Independence Day

Introduced as a song that's "previously unreleased" (previously???
was that a hint that it's about to see the light of day as a b-side
sometime soon - oh please let this be true!), none of us seemed to
have any difficulty singing along...  who needs official releases
in order to learn her songs anyway ;-)  Another one of the songs I
loved from last year, and it's just as good on hearing it live for a
second time.


I Want You Back

I absolutely ADORE the changes made to this song for the live set.
That's not to say I didn't like the original, because that's still
one of my favourite b-sides, but this uptempo rockin' kick-ass
variation is an aural delight.


Why

Another cooling down period, with a song that seems to lose a lot
of its sluggishness compared to the album version.  It's still a
slow mellow track, it just feels less of a drag than sitting through
it on the CD.  Maybe having Melanie just a few metres away was a
bit of a distraction...  Naaaah, don't be daft!


If That Were Me

Her next single apparently (though didn't she say that *last*
time?), I can't think of much to say about this performance.  By
the standards of the concert overall, it wasn't outstanding for
either good or bad reasons.  Let's call it average, if there is such
a thing as an average performance from Melanie...


Feel The Sun

One final gentle stroll through the peaceful musical meadows with
Melanie, before the pace picked up again as we moved towards the
end of the show.  As is usual during this song, she showed off her
Angel tattoo during *that* bit of the chorus (yes, you know which
bit I mean!), and as is usual when she does that, we all went
slightly mad...  I dunno, you'd think we'd never seen her belly
before!  But, you know, there's just something about *actually*
seeing it, as opposed to looking at photos or video clips.  I don't
think I'd get tired of seeing it for real every day for the rest of
my life...  and with that pleasant thought roaming around inside my
mind, time to move on to something new.


Goin' Down

"Are you ready to rock?"  No Melanie, actually we're not.  Can we
just have a few more minutes to prepare?  Another one of those songs
I prefer live, and I had no reason to be disappointed here.


Ga Ga

See my comments for If That Were Me, but ignore the bit about it
being her next single :-)


Suddenly Monday

And how the crowd did rock.  We all know this song *sounds* fun, but
that's nothing compared to how much fun it is to perform, or to be
in a crowd watching it being performed.  It may have been getting
towards the end of the show, but none of us seemed to be showing
any signs of tiredness during this song.  You make me hiiiigggh...


Never Be The Same Again

We may have been hoarse from all the singing and shouting over the
previous hour, but we still managed to sound pretty damned good at
the end of this, singing along in perfect unison.  I wonder how
Melanie feels, hearing an entire audience singing one of her songs,
word and note perfect.


And so to the encore, via much shouting, clapping, and something
which sounded suspiciously like a football chant...  whyever did we
think that might get her to return ;-)


I Turn To You

What a way to end the show!  It had the uptempo rockiness of the
Ga Ga's and Go's, combined with the emotion of the Closer's and
Feel The Sun's.  Hands up *anyone* who wasn't pointing right at
Melanie during the "I turn to you..." bit of the chorus.  Come on,
I KNOW there were a few of you not joining in...  But it was just a
few!  We love ya Melanie!!!



A few quick thank yous, a very quick namecheck for the band, and
that was that.  After the disappointment of the Liverpool
cancellation, I'd have been happy with any sort of performance,
but Melanie clearly isn't happy giving us anything less than her
absolute best.  And that's what we got.  I can't honestly say
whether it was better, worse, or just the same as the Astoria
concert.  That will always have a special place in my memories - it
was the first time I'd seen her perform live as a solo artist - but
make no mistake, this performance was technically just as good, and
I'll have no trouble remembering it in years to come.  Maybe the
crowd atmosphere wasn't quite as electric, but that could be due to
the multi-level layout at the Empire - we weren't quite so tightly
packed together down at floor level as we were at the Astoria, which
made it feel slightly less of an intimate experience.  Bearing this
in mind, it'll be interesting to see what the atmosphere is like at
Wembley Arena...