New Years Eve

Hi everyone, hope you all had a great New Year’s Eve and I wish you

all the best for 2012.

I spent my New Year’s up north in Chicago’s in Barnsley! Had an awesome evening and it was a great way to start 2012 :D

I arrived in Barnsley Friday afternoon where we stayed at a Ramada hotel, which was only five mins from the town centre. I had a chilled out evening, just running through a few songs and confirming with the DJ of Chicago’s what was the best time for me to head down and have a quick tech rehearsal. I woke up early Saturday morning to a full
English breakfast from the Toby Carvary across the road. Definitely a great start to the day! I popped down to Coral’s at midday to put a couple of quid on the football, as per usual, didn’t win lol. Once I got back to the hotel, I had a shower and started to get ready to
leave for the evening.

I wanted to dress smartly as New Year’s always seems to be a more formal night out. So I decided to wear a black suit jacket, white shirt, black tie, black trousers and black shoes. We got picked up by a taxi outside the hotel at 6pm and headed straight to Chicago’s. I
was able to have a technical rehearsal before they opened up to make sure everything was okay, which it was! The venue didn’t start to get busy until at least 10.30pm. I was announced on stage at 11.15pm and thankfully received a warm welcome from everyone. If I’m honest, I was actually really nervous before I went on stage, as I wasn’t sure what
sort of reception I’d get from everyone. My first song was ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’ by Michael Buble, which the audience all seemed to know, so they all began to sing along and join in. My first set consisted of half an hour taking me to quarter to twelve. I sang a mixture of 60’s, 70’s and contemporary music to make sure it would appeal for everyone there. My set also included ‘Superstition, All Time Low and Brown Eyed Girl.’ Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and I was looking forward to performing my second set later on.

On the stroke of midnight, Chicago’s started broadcasting BBC 1 on the big screen to count in the New Year. I was told I would be back on stage at quarter past twelve. I got another warm welcome from the audience which was encouraging and nice to see. I began my second set with, ‘It’s Not Unusual’ by Tom Jones which got everyone dancing
straight away :) I also sang ‘Footloose, Tiger Feet, Let’s Twist Again’ which were all crowd pleasers! I had one girl come and join me on stage lol, it was good fun actually. The bouncers weren’t too amused but ah well. :P I also included ‘Wonderwall,’ in my set a great tune in itself, which went down really well. This allowed everyone to put their arms round each other’s shoulders and sway side to side. It was good to see! My last couple of songs were, ‘Sweet Caroline and Don’t Stop Believing.’ I purposefully wanted to end with two big songs everyone could sing along to. I managed to get them all jumping up and
down for ‘Don’t Stop Believing’ which was awesome. I received a great reception from the audience once I’d finished and also from the DJ and from the working staff.

I haven’t properly performed in a club before so it was definitely an exciting, yet nerve-wracking experience. It will be a New Year’s I won’t forget and it was a great way for me to start 2012.

Speak to you all soon, Michael x