A couple of lovely Lee fans will be celebrating their birthday at the concert tonight!

Wonder if there will be cake . . .

We know for sure they will have a party!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADIES!!!

Hope you had a fabulous evening!

Hope it was lovely.

This was quite local for us, only a 40 min drive from North Essex. The venue was very new and shiny, lots of light wood and comfy seats. We were in row C and it was very close, I wonder how the row A ladies coped! Lee seemed his usual, bouncy self but even he seemed a little taken aback at how close we all were!
I haven't seen Lee live since the last Southend concert and I always forget how overwhelming that voice is, I am not particularly knowledgeable about all the songs on the set list, but stand out songs for me were Some Enchanted Evening, Feeling good and All of me, which was just beautiful. A lovely treat was Close every door, which I haven't expected to hear him sing live again, that certainly brought back some memories.
Lee had on a three piece navy suit, very smart, he took off the jacket in the second half and he did seem a bit nervous at the start, perhaps it is always scary going to a new venue. He soon got chatting and everyone seemed charmed by him. He had a folder of lyrics on stage and in one song I thought he was going to do a Lee and forget a lyric but Mason looked hard at him and he hastily looked at the folder! He smiled and waved at one lady on the side balcony and it distracted him so much he giggled and said 'I've lost my lyric now!'
He was quite open about his marriage break up and said he is in a good place now, he dedicated a song to Betsy and said he was off to Camber Sands with her this morning. He chatted quite a lot with Amanda who sang brilliantly, her rendition of Over the rainbow was fantastic. We ended in the usual way with ADWD, always a crowd pleaser, and he got a standing ovation at the end, well deserved it was too.

Lovely review. Thanks Clare!

Thank you Clare for the lovely review it is nice to know that Lee is taking Betsy to Camber Sands.
It sounds like it was a lovely concert thank you for sharing it with me.
Love acer

Thanks Clare for your lovely review, very much appreciated.

Thanks Clare, it sounds like it was a lovely evening and great that you could make another show

I'm looking forward to hearing some more reviews!

Thanks Claire I enjo*** reading your review. it is always nice to share some one else's excitement.
I'm so pleased you made to Bury St Edmunds & I look forward to seeing you at The Garrick Xmas.

Lin posted a couple of my stage door pics on the main website.
I will do my review later today

here it is. sorry if it is a bit long.

For me this weekend was special because I was celebrating my birthday.
When you get to my age every year is a celebration.
My husband took some time off work and he organized the weekend for us.
We set off early Saturday morning. The journey was OK but was slowed down by the traffic jams around Duxford air show On the way to Bury St Edmunds we stopped off at Ickworth house. A lovely Georgian Italianate palace and garden owned by the national trust.
The weather was perfect and we had a delicious lunch there.
Late afternoon after all our sightseeing we made our way to the hotel Nice place with just a hint of Fawlty towers about it. But the staff were lovely & we found some other Lee fans staying there. #surprise and one of them was also celebrating a birthday.
After a walk around the town and a bite to eat we made our way to the apex.
I was disappointed not to see any posters or flyers for Lee’s concert but the newly built Apex is an impressive multi-purpose community building with a 500-seat auditorium. The Auditorium includes two balcony levels and, ground floor. The ground floor seating is fixed to floating air-bearing wagons to facilitate rearrangement, for storage when not required and the raked theatre seating that sinks to become a flat floor for other event. I was both fascinated & impressed with the diversity of this venue. It had both comfort & style.
But now the show & the main reason for our trip. The lighting was perfect the acoustics great and the show started a few minutes late but that builds the for what’s to come doesn’t it?
The couple sitting next to us hadn’t seen Lee since he was in Joseph so I was interested to get her views on this enchanted evening.
The set list was pretty much the same. Starting off with “Where or When” & drifting into a “Foggy Day” & the 1940’s Hollywood theme was set
As always Lee’s slight nervous giggle makes it appearance at the start but then after chatting to the friendly audience and waves from the side balcony he relaxed and the Meady charm engulfed us all.
Amanda was lovely and she was well received by the audience. I love her voice and I love to see the warmth & harmony of her and Lee on stage together.
Lee’s band seem to enjoy themselves on stage as well. I suspect that there is a lot of Meady appreciation going on there.
The second half moves us forward in time with Feeling Good All of me & Lullaby but we are brought back to 1950’s when Mason gets out his ukulele and Lee seems to be auditioning for eastenders with his co ckney accent when he sings “I’ll see you in my dreams”
All in all another fabulous night and my husband loved it & the lady next to me? She loved it as well.

On the way home I did start to worry that we had somehow fallen into a sci fi time warp when we stopped at the Wimpole estate in Hertfordshire. They had an event called Wimpole travels back in time to the 1940s when food was rationed and growing your own became vital to your survival.
Please assure me that I really am back in 21st century I have a few more Meady gigs that I would hate to miss,

Thanks Joan, I think you've got your Claire/Clares mixed up, unfortunately I can't go to the Christmas show, but I look forward to reading your review and hopefully seeing some photos. Glad you had a good birthday weekend, Ickworth is lovely.

Oh NO I am so sorry. I do seem to get slightly meadmushed sometimes and it is not unusual for me to get Claire/Clare mixed up.

It's important for us all to share our reviews and photo's for those fans that can't always make it to shows.

Talking of being Meadmushed.
A very generous lady gave me something to raise money for Mushroom on Saturday night.
It that very kind lady reads this please email me at theteamlmas@gmail.com so that I can thank her properly.

Thanks Joan!

Thanks Joan for review and glad you had a lovely birthday.do you know if anyone has a video of Lee singing Lullaby I love it but with not going to his concerts I never get to hear Lee sing it I know a few years ago we always had someone posting video they had recorded at the concert don't they do that now?
Thanks again for keeping me in the loop Audrey x

Not a problem, I just didn't want you to think I was someone else! Thanks so much for posting the lovely photo, I had my phone all set up ready and then was so mesmerised by seeing him in the flesh I completely forgot it was in my bag, think we all get meadmushed together!

Thanks Clare and Joan for your lovely reviews - to the photos Joan. BTW, Lee wasn't wearing his pink Betsy socks - I asked him , he said he keeps them for when she's with him - Awww.
I don't think I've done a review for this tour, so here goes. 4 of us WJ Ladies arrived at the hotel and found Joan and her OH were also staying there, which was nice. As she has said, the hotel was a bit Fawlty Towers (not sure if they had heard of H&S ) but it was clean with lovely staff. In fact, when we left on the Sunday, there were no taxi's available to take us to the station, so one of the staff drove us there in his own BMW car!, now that's service for you.
Never been to Bury St Edmunds before, but one of our number lives not too far away, so we had our own 'guide'. Before the show, we went for a walk around the market town. I thought it was a lovely little place, nice and compact, lots of well known shops with old buildings intermingled with modern ones. It has a lovely cathedral and the Abbey Gardens were beautiful; so well kept with such pretty flower beds. We went for a meal before the show and there were 3 other groups of Lee fans we knew in the restaurant - well, we do get everywhere .
On to the concert, I too liked the Apex building and they had a good lighting engineer. We had seats in the front row - you could touch the stage (and Lee's shoes )from these seats! Lee seemed to have his mojo back for this one (wasn't sure he had at Camberley) and was back to his usual cheeky self and banter with the audience. I'm getting used to the songs on this tour now and Lee sings them beautifully with such emotion and whilst I don't mind them, they don't all grab me like many of the songs on his last tours have - his dancing is improving though, perhaps Stephen's been teaching him . Personally, I just wish he would put one or two big numbers somewhere in the set that really show off that incredible voice he has, so that newbies who have never heard or seen him before, know what he can really do with that voice, as several of the songs are fairly quiet (there must have been big MGM numbers back in the 40s and 50s). If he did that, for me it would balance everything out. I often feel I want to direct newbies to Youtube and Lee's Bring His Home performance at the RAH or something similar, but as I've said this is just my personal opinion, others probably see things differently and it certainly won't stop me buying his Album when it comes out . Amanda gets the 'big' songs to sing. My Lee favourites are Luck Be a Lady, Feeling Good and the two contemporary ones - All of Me and Lullaby (for Betsy - a real tearjerker, Lee says he loves being a Father).
Lee was generous with his time at the SD, even though he had a long drive back home that night. Our Birthday Girl got a hug from Lee(we'll all have a birthday on concert nights now ).
Next day we were told there was a Battle of Britain parade near the Abbey Gardens, so we went along. There was a band which emerged from the Abbey Gardens, followed by marching RAF personnel, American airmen, the 'old boys' also marched as did the youngsters. They paraded passed the Cathedral to the church up the road, had a service, then marched back passed the Mayor and top RAF 'brass' (lots of medals on display) who took the salute standing on a podium erected in the square. A local told me the Mayor used to own/run the local Chinese Restaurant!. There were many local dignitaries lined up as well - and for once the sun shone.
All in all it was a brilliant weekend and I do hope Lee goes back there sometime in the ***ure.

Thanks for the reviews and photos Clare, Joan and AnnieB!

Thanks Annie B for lovely review I am with you regarding the songs I am not keen on the quiet ones that is why I love Anthem it shows his voice off I am sure there are big songs that would suit his voice quite a few singers had strong voices in those films next time you go to his concert have a word I am sure he would be only too pleased to oblige cheers acer x

This is the third time I have tried to post on this thread and have lost it for various reasons! Not that it matters, because for once I am speechless - speechless because there is no travelogue! Trains ran to time, with no cancellations or delays - the first time of the entire tour to date!

Thank you, ladies, for your reports and photos. I have to say Lee did look gorgeous at the SD - no, cancel that, he looked HOT!! There was an elderly lady (I know! don't laugh!) in the queue with us. She hadn't met Lee before and kept diving behind everyone, as she was too shy to speak to him. We assured her he was lovely, and ushered her forward. She was thrilled to bits to speak to him and thanked us profusely on her way back. Aw!

One thing I remember in the concert which was very funny was when Lee talked of how romantic some of the songs are, and that nowadays you'd be more likely to rap rather than sing a song like that. He then proceeded to rap, Lee style, along the lines of "I want to take you out tonight, my name's PDiddy, I'll give you a fright!" or words to that effect There was a bit more, but I can't remember it, and if anyone can recall the exact words of what I've put, please feel free to amend!

The theatre was fabulous (no dodgy lighting here). We were lucky enough to be in the front row and a couple of times we thought Lee was going to join us, he was so close to the edge of the stage. Well, we can all dream!

Thanks A/Liz and everyone that have posted reviews and
photos, always very much appreciated.

Ro has also posted a lovely review on her Timeline page, thanks Ro.

Thanks for the great reviews. Always so appreciated when you are unable to go.

Thanks for the review ALiz - the mind boggles at the thought of 'Lee style' rapping!!!

Thank you Ladies for your excellent reports, I think you have covered everything!

It was lovely to be at Lee's first concert in my home county of Suffolk and, for me, the first time I have been able to drive to the venue instead of the long train journeys. Bury St Edmunds is one of my favourite places to visit and it gave me great pleasue to take friends on a mini guided tour of the town, Abbey gardens and Cathedral area.

To my shame, I had never actually been to a performance at The Apex, what a lovely theatre, the sound and lighting were brilliant and yes, phew, sitting in the front row was quite something! It was a happy relaxed concert, Lee was obviously enjoying himself. It was great to see him at the Stage Door afterwards where he made time for everyone who wanted to speak to him. I do hope he makes a return vist to Bury St Eds.

Thank you everyone who helped to make my birthday weekend so enjoyable, you know who you are but special thanks to Lee for bringing us altogether in the first place. Glad you had a lovely time too Joan

Review from the Bury Free Press. The first sentence says it doesn't it.

http://www.buryfreepress.co.uk/news/local/latest-news/review-lee-mead-charms-and-delights-audience-members-in-bury-st-edmunds-1-6974868

thanks for that Graziellla. what a lovely read.
Although since the audience was 90% female I don't think socks was the apparel that he charmed of them

Thanks for the link Graziellla

It's great to see such a lovely review of Lee's concert in the local press.