Gig Review: Blue at Sheffield City Hall

On Tuesday evening, fans flocked to the Sheffield City Hall for a nostalgic music fix from British noughties pop royalty Blue. Dubbed the ‘Greatest Hits Tour’, the iconic four-piece will take in 13 UK dates including Glasgow, Edinburgh and Manchester delving into their expansive back catalogue but also airing a few recently released and yet to be released songs.

There were two support acts on the evening, with the first being Diamonds and Whiskey – a country rock five-piece based in North Carolina. The band impressed with their heavy riffs, super crowd interaction and lead singer Jennifer Lauren’s sublime, soaring vocals. Their latest song Walk Hard was a particular crowd pleaser.

The second support was another American artist, Max Rae, who also knocked it out of the park with her stunning vocals and infectious energy – each song was perfectly choreographed with the help of two backing dancers. The catchy Metamorphosis had the receptive crowd singing and dancing – a real earworm.

Just after 9.30pm, the lights dimmed and Blue made their way onto the stage to a rapturous ovation. The bandmates sat casually on four speakers, and when the opening of 2001 mega-hit All Rise started, the bumper crowd were instantly up on their feet.

Riders and You Make Me Wanna swiftly followed, before the band played a more recent song with 2022 hit Haven’t Found You Yet.

The set had an R&B section with a mash-up of Montell Jordan’s This Is How We Do It, along with Dance With Me and You’re the Only One – demonstrating the band’s versality and penchant for getting the crowd moving.

Too Close and Guilty soon, followed before the band delivered a stirring rendition of Breathe Easy – another opportunity for Lee Ryan to stun the crowd with his powerful, captivating vocals that have stood the test of time flawlessly over the past two decades.

A nice moment came when Duncan James spotted a girl on the front row who was celebrating her ninth birthday and pulled her up on stage with the band and close to 2000 fans in attendance bellowing out Happy Birthday in unison.

The band then proceeded to play an unreleased song, My City, which went down well with the Sheffield crowd.

They also spoke about some of their musical inspirations over the years which made a nice caveat into their collaborations with Elton John and Stevie Wonder for Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word and Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours – two surefire songs to get all in attendance enthusiastically singing along.

Fly By II, Bubblin’ and Curtain Falls rounded of the main set, before a brief break in which a VT displayed a montage of people important to the band with an instrumental of Best in Me playing over the top.

The band then re-appeared for mega hits’ One Love and If You Come Back, sending the crowd home happy with a performance just as good as when they first took to the stage 23 years ago.