I am gutted as I was supposed to have been flying to London for a trip to Wales this week . . .

However, stiff upper lip and all that, Lin.

So, who is going to lovely Newtown, Wales? Please, please share . . .

I was going but it was a little too close to the Southend concert so had to let this one go. I am so sorry to see your bad news Linda.

I think are number of fans are going so hopefully we will get lot's of reviews & photo's

May everyone going to the concert tonight have a safe journey and a fabulous time

Looking forward to the reports! (smiles nicely)

Yes, I'm looking forward to hearing all about it!

Going by various tweets I have read, Lee's concert at the Hafren Theatre
was another big success. Look forward to some reviews and photos when
everyone has recovered from their long journeys.

Well I didn't have a long journey to recover from this time Maggiemay, only 1hr 30mins from home this time, but here goes with a brief review in the hope that others will add theirs in due course.

Newtown is a small town in beautiful mid wales, Lee mentioned driving through the Brecon Beacons and fields of silent sheep on his way to the theatre, only to be greeted by "you noisy lot".

Theatr Hafren is about a mile outside the town and is part of the Newtown College campus. Nice auditorium which looked pretty full from where I was sitting.

Lee told us that Betsy and his mum and dad had accompanied him on this trip, Betsy, he said, would be in bed snoring by now.

He sang the same set list as in previous concerts, but as always his interpretation seems to change every time, which is why every concert is different. Luck by a Lady he sang by himself. His Fix You just seems to get more emotional each time, he puts so much into it, there were tears in many eyes as once again he related this song to the very difficult year he had been through. Hallelujah, Father and Son and Bring him Home, were just fantastic, and I am sure he held that last note of Bring him Home for the longest time ever I have heard him sing it, and I have heard it quite a few times - breathtaking. Bring him Home got a standing ovation.

Crazy Little thing called Love, Kiss, Luck be a Lady, Dancing through Life and Singing in the Rain are the songs he seems to have fun with, and he did have fun with them.

It was lovely to see Amanda Henderson again, she is just lovely with a beautiful, strong clear voice. She duetted As Long as You're Mine with Lee, and then she sang a solo - As Long as He Needs Me.

Instead of Will Stuart on keyboards, Lee was accompanied at this concert by a new guy Mike ?? on a grand piano. As usual, Mason was there on drums and guitar and also Mike?? on guitar.

This time Lee wore the grey suit with red lining, white shirt and, for the first time this tour a tie - a black tie. Previous concerts there has been no tie, and he removes the jacket for the 2nd half. This time he just removed the tie for the send half, and left the jacket on.

The lighting was disappointing I felt, every time Lee went off left or right stage, he disappeared into semi darkness. Also, when he has sung Father and Son and Bring Him Home at previous concerts, the spotlight was just on him, which didn't happen in Hafren, it was a much more subdued effect.

Loads of people at the stage door, and from snippets of conversation I overheard people just loved it. We waved him off, as he drove away - in jeans and a snug fitting black tee shirt - a resounding PHOOAARR was heard echoing around the car park.

Thank you so much for your lovely review Ruthie, I have seen many
tweets saying how brilliant Lee and the concert were, there seems
to be a lot of new fans as well which is fantastic. I was so pleased
to hear that Lee was able to spend time at the weekend with Betsy,
we all know how precious that time is to Lee.

I have not been able to go to Lee's concerts so far this year due
to health problems, so for people to take time to post a review is
very much appreciated.

I am going to Lee's Christmas Concert as my son has booked a few
days holiday to travel with me, he also told me today that he has
booked 2 tickets so that he can accompany me. He is always taking
the mickey out of me regarding Lee telling his friends that I am a
Lee groupie, but in the nicest possible way of course. So it was
quite a surprise when he said he had booked two tickets for Lee's
Christmas concert.

What a lovely thing for your son to do, maggiemay! I'm so glad you will be able to see Lee again - the Christmas concert will be wonderful!

Great review Ruthie!

I think quite a few of us have been called Lee groupies, Maggiemay. I get a lot of stick at work, and when I hurt my back recently, I can't tell you how they suggested it was caused ... let's just say it involved throwing a certain item of my clothing at Lee!!! (just to be clear, that is what they said, not what I actually did! The real reason was far more boring)

Anyway, back to the Hafren. Unlike Ruthie, Newtown is on the other side of the country - in fact a different country - for me and involved three trains and a bus. We had a hiccup the night before, when the railway line from my home to London was blocked by flash flooding. Thankfully, my part of the line was cleared on the morning of travel, although it flooded further up the line which meant one of my partners in crime missed her booked train from Euston. All was well, though, and she was able to catch a later train (ours) with no problems. It was a lively journey from London, as we shared the train with lots of Arsenal supporters on their way to the match with Aston Villa. How they could tuck into cider, lager, beer and pasties at that time in the morning beats me! They were a good crowd, though, and happily helped us with our luggage.

On arrival in Newtown, we soon discovered there are no taxis at the station. Grateful thanks, therefore, to SueF, who miraculously had (a) the number of a local taxi firm and (b) a phone that had a reception! The Brecon Beacons are beautiful, but very good at blocking signals to most networks, we found out.

We had seats to the left hand side of the stage as you look at it, front & 2nd row. There was a very large space between the front row and stage, and in fact they had said when we booked that this space was left for wheelchairs, and possibly would also be filled with extra rows of seats, should the show be sold out! There were about six wheelchairs I think, towards the centre of the row.

What can I say about Lee? He was in fantastic voice, and held the last notes for such a long time. He rings every ounce of emotion from those songs. With Fix You, it seems to me that each time he sings it, a different phrase seems to leap out emotion-wise. And after Bring Him Home he almost ran from the stage without saying a word - I wondered if he was incapable of speech. I know I was.

Apart from Amanda, Keith Jack was his guest. Keith sang Moondance and You Raise Me Up, and then came on (from the opposite side of the stage) after Lee's BHH to sing This Is The Moment. There was no duet. He has matured so much from ADWD! At the end, Keith and Amanda came back on during ADWD, and Keith sang along with Lee, although Amanda seemed a bit reluctant to join in!

Ruthie, the 'new' band member is Mike Riley @MichaelRileyMD if anyone wants to follow him, and the bass guitarist is Richie.

Yes, there was a large crowd waiting to see Lee afterwards! One funny moment was when Keith came out, obviously in a rush, but said something about Lee was on his way, but was just putting on his underwear!!!! Those who overheard were rendered speechless as our imaginations went into overdrive!

Thanks Another Liz, another lovely review. I know I am being
greedy now but did anyone take any photos at the stage door.

I have looked at the twitter page of the pianist who stood in for
Will and he tweeted quite a few tweets about the concert, which
was nice.

Thanks for the great reviews Ruthie and Liz. Much appreciated.

also thanks from me for all your reviews.

Thanks Ruthie & A Liz for your reviews.
I will try to cobble thoughts together later on.
I had to be on my very best behaviour because I had my big brother with me on this trip.

OK here goes:

This trip was tinged with a little bit of sadness for me because the 2 ladies that I was going with had to pull out for personal reasons.

Not wanting to leave 2 seats empty in the centre of Row D I asked my Brother & sister in law if they would like to join me and my OH.
They think that I am slightly Mead obsessed ( nothing wrong with that I hear you cry) so I was surprised that they said yes.

We decided to make a family weekend of it.
So we travelled from London to Stafford on Friday & had a lovely family get together then my OH drove us all to Wales Saturday morning stopping off to have a look at Powys castle on the way. It was beautiful.
We checked in to our hotel & went off to find somewhere to eat
That was an experience I will never forget as well.
The theatre was not very well sign posted but we passed it on our way into Newtown & had a quick look around checking out the parking situation.
once inside the theatre was really nice.
There was a few wheelchairs in front of Row A & the theatre had a good “rake” so every seat had a good view.
We were in the centre of row D & I was really happy with our seats. I was nervous because I really wanted them to like the show.
In the interval they both said that they were enjoying the show & my brother said at the start he thought he wasn’t going to like it but as soon as Lee sang Luck be a Lady the show took off. LBAL is one of his favourite songs & I am glad Lee did it solo.
Sis in law was happy so I relaxed a bit more in the 2nd part.
At the end of the show they both said that they really enjoyed it. Although I heard SiL say to one fan that the first time she saw Lee in Birmingham she found him boring but tonight he was much more confident & loved the whole show
They even agreed to go to the stage door. SiL was impressed with Amanda & wanted to tell her. She was happy to have her pic taken with Amanda & she asked her if she knew Lee before he went into Casualty.
Amanda replied “No but I was a fan of his since ADWD & I was really excited when it was announced that he was coming into the show”.
She said that he is not only a good mate but he is one of the nicest men she has ever met. I was so pleased that they heard this from someone that works with Lee.
There was so many people around the SD that it was hard to even see Lee let alone speak to him. And to be fair he was driving himself back that night & he needed to get on the road.
My Brother was impressed with Mason.
As an ex drummer he was watching Mason more than Lee.
Not something that I have ever been guilty of.

My first concert this year and well worth the wait. A fantastic concert and nice to see some familiar faces. Thank you ladies for your reviews. I won't add anything more but I think you might like a couple of my photos taken at the stage door.





Photo credit - Chris W

OOOf, but he is gorgeous.
LOL I wonder how many times I have typed or thoguth that over the years!
Thanks for the reviews and pics x

Thanks for your review Joan and thank you ChrisW for those gorgeous
photos.

Sorry about your friends' bad luck, Joan. Thanks for all the reviews and photos, look forward to seeing everybody at Southend.

Arrived at Newtown at 4pm after a fairy long but uneventfull journey. No Taxi rank so walked to the Hotel(not too far as it turned out. A few "Meadaholics" already in residence.

Had a Taxi to the venue only to discover it was on it's own no eating place in or around it. Rescued by Gail and hubby Brian and taken to nice little Italian place

Back to Concert Venue, nice seat middle Row B and waited for the now familiar "Pure Imagination" the man himself apeared looking very dapper in a grey suit with a red lining which during the performance he showed of a few times, the one button looked a bit strained is our Lee puting on a bit of weight (all those Casualty tea trollies)

Although this far into the Tour we are familiar with most of the songs he still manages to bring something new to them each time."Fix You" in particular as he explained this song helped him cope with a very bad year.
His guest Keith Jack sang two songs on his own no duet with Lee I was quite amused that one song choice was "You raise me up" the one Lee sang with Josh Groban on ADWD that Keith seemed miffed about at the time !
Amanda Henderson (Robyn in Casualty) sang a duet with Lee and "As long as he needs me" on her own she sang this beautifully. Lee and Amanda seem to have developed a strong friendship Lee was driving them both back to Cardiff as Amanda had driven up. " Past a lot of sheep" according to Lee".
The stage door had a large gathering. Keith emerged first and shot off saying Lee was just putting on his underwear !!. Amanda was next she chatted for a while and then Lee himself appeared, looking happy and relaxed he signed and posed with his usual charm. managed to get one snap as it was not only diffucult to get near it was very dark Oh yes almost forgot he gave me a kiss on the cheek !!!!!!!!!
Altogether a lovely day. now for Southend.

Well done Maggie getting your usual kiss,so pleased for you thanks for review

Many thanks Ruthie, ALiz, Joan, Chris W and Maggie B for all your fabulous reports and photos - they are very much appreciated by those of us who couldn't be there!

Maggiemay - the Christmas concert will be my very first Lee show of 2014 too. I'm really looking forward to it, especially as I will be bringing a Lee 'newbie' (my sister) with me

Thanks to everyone for the interesting reviews and lovely photos! No reviews from me this time as I wasn't there.

I actually posted in the week but got told off for spamming again and lost the comments and then I didn't have the time or the energy to re-do it.

Its really nice having an insight to everyone's personal experiences of the day as they are all different. Sounds like a good concert, maybe the Welsh air managed to hit parts that other concerts haven't reached . I loved Keith's comments too

The Welsh concerts do seem to be a huge success. I had a spy at the Aberystwyth concert page and the seats are going really fast there.

A bit late but thanks for all the reviews & pics ladies. Much appreciated.