Speaking of Clacton (which we were on the Isle of Wight thread) - who is lucky enough to be going to this one?
The last concert in Clacton (which I was able to attend 
) was really special - the audience were just cheeky enough to bring out the playful side of Lee and it was such fun!
I hope all who go will share with us once again. Love the reviews and photos.
Oh the last Clacton concert it was poring down with rain and the youngsters stated to sing " Singing in the Rain" at the stage door.
It was fun and friendly.
Although I do hope that this weekend it will stay dry for us all.
I quote the great Mr Spock aka Leonard Nimoy
"The more we share the more we have"
that could be our forum motto 
May everyone going to the Clacton concert have a safe journey and a great time 
And hopefully Lee is feeling much better after his illness earlier this week.
Hopefully a nice, easy trip to Clacton for me. I say hopefully, as I never trust our trains - but at least no journey via London this time.
If OH could be persuaded (pigs might fly!!) we could drive and be there in 45 minutes - and also come home tonight. But there's no fun in that and you know me, each trip is an overnighter! I'm sure we'll find something to talk about 
EDIT 5 minutes later: Just checked on Twitter - points failure! I knew it! 
Because I believe in happy endings, I am fairly certain ALiz made it to Clacton OK and on time and her enchanted evening quickly put these "inconveniences" out of mind. 
Hopefully we will soon hear from her and others who were at the concert. Can't wait!
A few stage door photos from Joan to get us started . . .
Warning: Neck porn - 
Clacton - this time it was sunny well ...ish. Cloudy with a cool wind in the afternoon.
As it was impossible for us to get to Clacton in time for the concert in one day, we set off on the Saturday, sta*** over in London, and travelled on to Clacton on Sunday. We treated ourselves and went to see Gypsy on Saturday evening, Imelda Staunton delivers what is probably the performance of her career, and we saw Lee's friend Dan Burton in the role of Tulsa. During our meal on Saturday,thanks to my 2 lovely friends I discovered a new Rose wine, now my No. 1 tipple, (my OH is at this moment sourcing a bottle for me he obviously missed me!!!)
After a wander along the prom and refreshments, we got to the theatre. Plenty of familiar and new faces waiting outside. By this time the sun was shining properly. We were aware of a buzz of excitement and turned to see Lee walking across the road towards the theatre, looking knee-buckling and jaw-droppingly gorgeous in black jeans and white shirt - we were hoping he would stay like that for the concert. He stopped to chat with fans before heading into the theatre.
There was an excited vibe in the full theatre. The concert was dela*** by 15 minutes I believe due to the concert having tweeted earlier that it was a 7.30 start when in fact it should have been 7, so there were a few late comers to accommodate.
Lee walked confidently onto the stage dressed in his black tux suit, minus the bow tie and with the top buttons of his sparkling white dress shirt undone. Straight way there was a totally different feel than in Bedworth, which was the last one I went to, and he fizzed and sizzled all the way through. Confident and funny, he retold the story of his first kiss, Louise was only 7ft this time, not 7ft 2ins, and he embellished the story quite a bit.He mimed spraying himself all over with Lynx. 
. He desparately tried to dig himself out of a hole when he mentioned that it was lovely to see some young faces in the audience before apologising profusely to those "young at heart" ladies, but we just love him for it. He let slip about Lofty maybe having to "get his kit off" in ***ure episodes.
The set list was tweaked a bit and the whole concert was really uplifting. There were a few inevitable Meady moments when same lines were repeated, but who cares During One for my Baby, which he sang sitting on a stool, 2 glasses of whiskey were brought in and placed on the Joe's piano, this made a real difference to the delivery of the song.
I will stop rabbiting on and let others fill in gaps.
Suffice to say, I am completely enchanted, and can't wait to see how the rest of the tour develops.
Apart from Lee and the concert of course, my other memory of Clacton is SEAGULLS, hundreds of them, lurking about as if they owned the place and waking me up at 5am, after a late night drinking my new favourite tipple and eating chocolate.
Thanks Ruthie! Great review!
Lofty getting his kit off in Casualty? Yes, please!
Lovey to read your review Ruthie, more fool me for missing out this time!
I'd also like to say thanks to Jane W for your excellent review on the website page. I had a heads up from Cassie as I rarely look on there but it was a fabulous read and conjured up very real images of the day. I also read the one from Bedworth too. Thanks
I'm liking these rumours of the kit coming off!
I think the Meady Bits edit might contain a few more Meady bits than usual for that episode 
Thanks for the photos Joan
Ha ha! Yes, Lin, we did make it to Clacton - but not without the usual trials and tribulations of train travel. This is the third concert of the tour, and the third time the trains have caused trouble, so hopefully that's it for now.
You can imagine the scene, two of us standing on the platform at Chelmsford, reading yet again "train cancelled". I grabbed a passing member of staff and asked what to do to get to Clacton. He looked blank. "Shall we catch a train to Colchester and change there?" I asked. Lightbulb moment for staff member - anything to get rid of this frantic woman. "Yes, good idea," was his constructive reply - so that's what we did.
To set the scene, two more of our party were supposedly catching the train at Liverpool Street, two of us at Chelmsford, another at Witham and the last one at Colchester. Texts were flying between all of us as we frantically tried to find out who was where etc etc. Anyway, the two of us picked up a third at Witham and the three of us decanted at Colchester. The Liverpool St two were at this point on a train somewhere but very dela***. We hung around watching the notice board - Clacton train cancelled. Finally an announcement: "The train that was marked as cancelled isn't - it's running xxxx minutes late" (sorry, can't remember exactly, but it was quite a lot!). Aargh! It finally arrived, we boarded it, but couldn't meet up with our friends because it was two trains bolted together so no way of walking through it! Then it turned out friend no.6 had missed the Colchester connection so would be even later arriving at Clacton. But we all got there in the end - and it would appear the delays only affected us, as those travelling earlier arrived before the points failure, and by the time those travelling later set off, it had been sorted.
Enough of the travel saga. Cut to arriving at the theatre. Our taxi for 6 turned the corner to the theatre where we spotted a familiar figure chatting to fans outside the main entrance. "That's Lee Mead," the taxi driver informed us, proudly displaying his knowledge. "We know!" we shrieked, throwing £10 notes at him - he didn't seem keen to take up the offer of one of us - "can we pay you later?" Normally we descend from a taxi bus with extreme care - this time we flung ourselves out onto the pavement with gay abandon. Up comes Mr Mead ... "I see you've come in your limo!" Then, I couldn't believe what I said ... "you wouldn't believe the trouble we've had coming from Chelmsford on the train"! (Why does he make people say the most ridiculous things!?) He then said he'd come up on the train too, from Rayleigh, but much earlier, therefore avoiding all the problems.
The concert, for me, IS getting better and better, but I won't go on about the songs any more. "All of Me" was back, as he'd promised, so I was happy. It was hysterical, though, when he said it was nice to see some younger fans there. As we were in the front row, my first thought was, "he should have gone to Specsavers" , but he took the view that he'd alienated his core fans by that remark. We were crying with laughter, and he kept mouthing "sorry" to us - but he did see the funny side too, as he couldn't start the song for laughing, and had to turn away from the audience to compose himself!
There was a huge van by the Stage Door, which made things a bit difficult, but he came out and signed, chatted and had photos again with most people who were waiting. By now he'd changed into a lovely dark shirt (thank you, Joan, for the gorgeous photos) and looked positively edible! Just after he left, our taxi came to collect us, so perfect timing all round - so all that's left to say is roll on Camberley.
Thanks Lin for posting my stage door pics on here.
Our weekend adventure started on Saturday when 2 friends drove to London and we had a very pleasant evening. first we went out for a lovely meal then back home quick change in to pj's and settled down to watch Casualty.
followed by a lazy Sunday morning while we waited for the fourth member of our little band to arrive. then it was off on the M25 to Clackers.
We had fish & chips at the end of the pier and lot's of laughs along the way.
checked into our hotel a bit of a rest before getting ourselves ready to drive to the theatre. YES drive! I was wearing lady shoes so I couldn't possibly have waked anywhere.
We took our seats Row A thank you to the friend that booked for us.
I haven't had a row A since Bedworth last year.
Lee looked totally relaxed and after the first couple of songs mentioned that he had some friends and family in the audience. Lee was in a very light hearted mood and this seemed to transfer to the whole audience. They were with him from the very first line of the very first song.
Amanda just gets better every time I hear her sing and her version of I got Rhythm is exquisite. I love the duet that they sing together as well.
But back to Lee The whole show seems to flow better now. I can only compare it to Bedworth because I couldn't go to IoW 
Lee sings Feeling good in the second half of the show and he puts his whole heart and soul in to that song. I love love love him singing that.
I enjo*** the sounds of the clarinet & saxophone. It seems to go so well with the era of the songs. there was lot's of little kicks & flicks both during and at the end of songs. There was no doubt that Lee was enjoying himself as much as we were.
As you can see I went to the stage door but I didn't speak to him I just pointed my camera above the crowd.
Although one of the friends I was with did manage to have a brief chat with him and get him to sign something special.
Ruth I also was woken up by those noisy seagulls.
I am a city girl and not used to such squawking.
I can't wait for Camberley. Lee will be even more relaxed and tanned.
I know this is a bit late but thanks for all the reviews ladies & those photos Joan. What can I say? There's something about the second one. Phew!!! 
