This is a fairly brief review of Lee’s WSM concert and our visit. We arrived in WSM to be greeted by brilliant sunshine. Having checked into our hotel, we thought we should find out where the theatre was (lots of these booking sites tell you the theatre/station/hotel etc. is only 5 mins away from the centre, but they forget to mention it’s 5 mins by helicopter 
). We walked along the prom, which is lovely with big wide clean pavements and the sun was really warm. Yes, the tide was a long way out but you could see the Welsh hills in the distance and we thought it all looked lovely both by day and when the lights came on at night.
On to the concert,Richie the bass guitarist was back in the band (apparently he lives 4 mins from theatre and Lee ribbed him about that) and Mike Smith was back on piano. John (the fiddler from The Pheasantry) was there, as of course was Mason. The band started up and Lee came on looking good in his blue suit. Now I confess I can’t remember the order of the songs but it was a mix of songs from the Album. He started with 'Where or When' as usual and then explained to the audience how he had come to record an Album of songs from MGM Hollywood era. Before ‘I Fall In Love Too Easily’ he told the usual story about his first love ‘Louise’, (we always wait to see how tall she’s going to be this time 
). He included the song 'Sandy' from Grease sung by Danny Zuco which we first heard at The Pheasantry, he turned his collar up, but after singing the collar wouldn’t sit back down again, which his fans found funny, not sure if some of the audience got it though, they don't realise Lee laughs at himself. He’ll need to bring his leather jacket next time 
. He also included Close Every Door and Bring Him Home (‘because I haven’t sung them for a long time'), and the tear jerker ‘Lullabye’ for Betsy. Then, towards the end of the second half he said I’m going to sing a song I haven’t sung in public before so I’m a bit nervous as "it takes a while for your voice to bed in to a new song" and it was By Myself accompanied by Mike on the piano. He needn’t have worried, his vocals were wonderful and it was lovely to hear Lee sing it live. As has been said many times, Lee doesn’t need big bands to enhance his performance, his vocals and the way he interprets songs is superb.
Amanda Henderson was his guest and sang the Adele song, 'Make You Feel My Love'and one other (oops, sorry can’t remember the name!) They also sang the duet 'Happy Days' and 'Get Happy'. I would imagine Amanda made a quick get away as soon as she’d finished singing to get back to Cardiff ready for filming in the morning as we didn’t see her after that.
Wendy of Eclipse was in the foyer selling Lee’s SEE Album and his earlier Love Songs one. Before the concert people were just looking, but when we came out it was nice to see there were quite a few people queuing up to buy the Album, so they must have enjo*** the concert. Lee said on stage that he was pleased it had got to No. 20 on the Indie Chart; he thought it was going to be a slow burner.
It’s always going to be difficult to top those 4 recent shows at The Pheasantry and you can’t really compare the intimate venue there to a larger theatre, but WSM was a lovely concert and Lee appeared to go down well with the 'locals' judging by the people waiting for him at the SD.
Oh dear, this is not so brief after all.
Thanks for that Annie!
Good to hear that people were buying the album!
Thanks for your review of WSM concert Annie
I would have loved to have gone to this one.
I spent many a happy childhood holiday at WSM but I haven't been back since I moved to London **years ago.
I fact I wont be able to go to any of Lee's March concerts so your review is very very much appreciated. 
Thanks for doing a review, Annie. Yes, it was a lovely couple of days in WSM. Not sure what it's like at the height of the season - judging from the number of seaside cafes, they must have droves of hungry visitors! They were just starting to get things up and running for summer when we were there.
For me, the WOW factor was back!!! I think everybody knows my thoughts re Lee's current batch of songs ... but ... I absolutely loved his version of 'By Myself'. Lee was totally into it too. The way he built up from the quiet start to the huge finish sent shivers down my spine - I do love a good shiver! Needless to say, my other favourites were 'Close Every Door', 'Bring Him Home', and the new addition, 'Sandy'. It was lovely to see his CD selling like hot cakes in the foyer afterwards.
Next stop Kettering - three more sleeps! 
Thanks so much for the reviews AnnieB and ALiz
Really pleased to hear that 'By Myself' has made it onto the set-list for the tour as I had feared that it would be an album-only song like 'She' from the last album. It's such a powerful, emotional song and it must be thrilling to hear it live.
Also good to hear that Lee seems pleased with how the album sales are going so far. As well as no. 20 on the indie chart, the album reached no. 135 on the main album chart in its first week which is respectable given its limited promo and distribution (compared to anything coming out of one of the major record labels).
According to UKChartsPlus, which also provides a break-down of the main top 100 albums chart into Wales-only and Scotland-only, Lee also reached no 75 on the Wales chart in the week of release. So it seems that the album sold particularly well in Wales. I was wondering if this was, at least in part, due to airplay that it got on BBC Radio Wales - Beverley Humphreys pla*** several of the songs over the weeks leading up to release. Radio play is so key to album sales!
