Alfie Boe at the Orchard Theatre

Alfie Boe
Orchard Theatre, 25 May 2012

Years ago, back when I was at school, musical star Michael Ball had his own TV show. Ball is a singer and a West End star who had made his name in Andrew Lloyd Webber show Aspects Of Love, and even now is famous for his cheeky, clean-cut image, curly blonde hair and boyish charm. His show was a variety type affair with guests and him singing various MOR and musical numbers, fairly typical early evening TV fluff and nothing to write home about. But one performance from that show in particular has stuck in my mind all these years because it was so unintentionally hilarious and completely misguided: it was Ball, in a poor attempt to be hip, trying to croon the quirky punky pop of Love Shack by The B52's. Well this weird-ass Alfie Boe show was the live equivalent of Michael Ball singing Love Shack.

I was trying to decide whether or not to actually write about this show as it wasn't my choice of an evening's entertainment rather a present for my mother who adores Alfie Boe, the English tenor who has become a classical crossover star in recent years, but it was so damn weird I feel the need to record it. I certainly didn't expect it to be weird or horrible, Boe seemed perfectly nice if rather unexciting to me. Having begun his career in opera, he most recently gained much acclaim playing Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, and from what I've heard of his albums that's the kind of music he specialises in: light opera, musical numbers and pop sung in an operatic style. Of course on his last album there was a surprise duet with none other than Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin on, rather bizarrely, the Tim Buckley track Song To The Siren. That should have been the first clue that deep down, behind the innocent smile that mums love so much, Alfie Boe is a classic rock fan who wants nothing more than to rock out. And this show proved that without a doubt, and if that sounds incredibly cringe-worthy, well it really, really was.

The show didn't start off too badly. He came on, all big smiles and friendly banter, cheerfully telling off some ladies in the audience who came in late and making jokes with his band: he seems like a genuinely nice guy. Of course his band, for a opera star, albeit a crossover one, seemed a bit rock n' roll, with a huge drumkit at the centre and guitar and keyboards, looking more like Jon Bon Jovi's crew. But, despite the band, the music still seemed fitting, starting off with a suitably operatic and moody Song For The Siren and going on to the sentimental In My Daughter's Eyes and of course his big Les Mis number, Bring Him Home. But going off for a brief interval Boe warned the audience that he was going to get rocking for the second half and get everyone on their feet. I assumed this was light opera talk for a few upbeat numbers but boy was I wrong.

When he first returned he did a medley of acoustic opera numbers, which actually showed off his impressive tenor voice quite beautifully, but then it all went really, unbelievably horrible. Encouraging the crowd of middle-aged women and elderly couples to get on their feet, suddenly the volume was cranked up as Boe went into a truly horrid medley of Elvis numbers that must have had the great man turning in his grave. This was the side of concert going I've never seen before, the older theatre-going crowd who want to clap along to bad karaoke style covers of popular songs. It was quite literally jaw-droppingly awful. But it got worse, oh much worse, for there was not one but two Eagles covers. I can't stand the Eagles at the best of times, unless it's Johnny Cash covering Desperado, but then he makes most songs better. I can't say the same of Alfie Boe and while his Desperado wasn't good, it didn't reach the absolute depths of awfulness of his Hotel California.

The rest is a blur of soft rock embarrassment, much like your dad getting up and singing Rolling Stones and Allman Brothers songs on karaoke. Admittedly Boe has a better voice but the band were pub rock all the way and Boe's nice guy style was about as rock n' roll as, well, an opera star singing rock songs: just completely naff. It was really loud too, which normally I wouldn't complain about if I was at a Dinosaur Jr or Mars Volta gig but Alfie Boe Goes Rock already was hurting my ears without adding painfully loud to the mix. I can't even imagine what the pensioners in the audience were thinking (although his hardcore female fans, all wearing Alfie t-shirts and roses for some reason, seemed to love his new rock swagger).

So there you go, my first true MOR, easy listening concert-going experience was bizarre to say the least and just left me completely baffled. I guess if Neil Young came out and did something utterly different that baffled his audience I would applaud his bravery but with Alfie Boe, not exactly the king of reinvention and experimentation, it was just, well, odd and pretty embarrassing. But at the very least, I thought this show was one I would forget straight away but because of Boe's rock star wannabe act it was memorable just for all the wrong reasons.