Concert Reviews

Venue: Shepherds Bush Empire London
Author: Dave Wood
Date: 18 Dec 2004

Delirious, London, December. When those three words come together it can mean only one thing, the Delirious? Christmas Show! Having moved the annual festive concert around various London venues for the past couple of years, the band finally returned to the superb Shepherds Bush Empire for the 2004 Christmas Show. Having performed a sell-out concert at the same venue just a couple of months earlier, Delirious? once again found an excited audience ready for another taste of Delirium.

Wearing their pin-stripe suits, Delirious? emerged on stage to launch into 'Grace Like A River'. Martin, wearing a captain's arm-band, energetically waltzed around the stage and fairly soon had to remove his neck scarf as the heat levels started to soar. 'Rain Down' was next, with the band easing into the swing of things and the crowd singing and yelling along madly.

As 'Free' began, the song lyrics appeared on the video screen behind the band. The crowd, heeding the not so subtle hint, sung even louder than before to Martin's visible pleasure. 'With You' came next before Martin took a seat at the Rhodes piano to sing 'Mountains High'. On the video screen behind him an alien figure trekked up a huge mountain through a storm.

The worshipful 'Majesty' was accompanied on the video screen by the moving silhouette of a person dancing. Just when the song seemed as though it would end, the band continued to play a stunning extended instrumental outro, resulting in one of the biggest applauses of the night. The familiar opening notes of 'History Maker' pulsated around the venue, and once again the crowd went wild. Wanting to get even closer to the crowd, Martin climbed up onto the barrier, supported by outstretched arms from the crowd, whilst the security stewards watched with bemused glances. Pulling out his bible, Martin proceeded to read out a passage before returning to the stage.

The wonderful 'Inside Outside' came next, with Martin and Stu sharing the vocals. Continuing to exercise his voice, Stu took up position on a stool in the centre of the stage to perform a solo rendition of 'Beautiful Sun'. It was a rare outing for the song and boy was it a cracker. Talking of things Christmassy, the sight of the five band members pulling on Santa hats was a sure sign that the essential part of the yearly Christmas Show was about to occur. The Christmas song. Huddled around on stools Delirious? lead the crowd in a hearty version of 'Winter Wonderland', complete with snow machine. An impromptu few notes of 'Jingle Bells' finished the scene off perfectly.

Martin's turn to sing a solo was next, as he gave a flawless airing to 'All The Way', bringing an end to the brief acoustic set. Taking things back to full volume, 'Bliss' rocked its way from wall to wall and 'Feel It Coming On', with it's black and white Littlehampton beach video, continued the momentum. With Martin once again at the Rhodes things started to slow back down. Introducing 'Every Little Thing', Martin read out a letter from someone encouraged by the song, and then asked everyone with a cell-phone to call up a friend and let them listen in to the song. Bringing the main set to an end, Delirious? blasted out 'God In Heaven' at full pelt, before leaving the stage to raucous applause.

Returning for the encore, the band gently played 'I Was Blind' with it's soothing video of candles floating around on the video screen. As the song reached a peak, millions of pieces of confetti fell on the crowd all across the venue, creating a stunning visual effect. Before finishing their last concert of the year, there was time for Delirious? to give one more festive song in the form of a Martin and Stu duet of 'Silent Night'. It was the perfect end to a brilliant Christmas Show.