Civic Theatre, Newcastle
Thursday November 10, 2016 :
Modest, humble and appreciative, three words I walked away thinking would describe Ronan Keating after watching him live on Thursday night. The proud Irishman complete with his seven-piece band had the crowd dancing in the aisles and even got his inner leg stroked by an excited female member of the audience.
The Newcastle gig was the second last Australian show on his Time Of My Life world tour. Dressed predominantly in black, the singer looked buffed and opened up to the audience about his life and his successful musical journey. When it came to the set list, Keating left no stone unturned with songs from his solo career, Boyzone, and a few covers thrown in just for good measure.
A theme openly relayed to the audience from the start was Keating’s love and respect for his Australian born wife, Storm. There is no doubt the 39 year old is in love and he wants the world to know it. Keating reflected on his marriage, his song writing and the fact his 10th studio album took one year to write and predominantly conceived around his kitchen bench in London. “At the end of the day who are we writing the album for you,” relayed Keating to the audience.
Sure the hits came through the show but songs from Time Of My Life had me from the first song. Keating introduced ‘Landslide’, a song dedicated to his wedding day, played with Keating on acoustic guitar, powerful lyrics with a real country feel. Keating revealing to the audience his love of country music and was equally sure Newcastle was just as big on country as himself. Keating admitted being addicted to the TV series Nashville so much that he hid out with his wife and watched three series in 4 days. Apart from the love of the show, ‘As Long As We’re In Love’ was written and this song would not be out of place at any country concert.
Having been in the business for 23 years, Keating is clearly down to earth and at great place in his life, love and his work. He is open in saying his greatest achievement is “still being here and getting away with it”. The audience loved listening to the stories of how or why the songs came to life, Keating signed off saying just remember “life is a rollercoaster” as he put his hands together and thanked the audience.
Reviewer : Natasha Wyborn
Photographer : David Jackson
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