Ronan Keating Live@The Royal Albert Hall (11/3/10)

The Albert itself is quite an impressive spectacle – a coliseum-like structure towers above the stage area, not dissimilar to a smaller version of the O2 Arena. And excitement was in the air with word adrift that we wouldn’t just be taking a Picture of You of our blue-eyed prince.

Keating was casually dressed for the occasion – sporting a shiny black waistcoat over the usual shirt and trousers combo. Still that seemed fine for his many adoring ladies in attendance as he began with crowd-favourite and usual tour-opener, ‘Friends in Time’. Ronan’s powerful pipes were in good shape as he showed his usual static stage movements, albeit with a happy smile attached.

Live at The Royal Albert Hall,

London

Date - 11/3/10

Of course more casual viewers were then indulged with the slushy upbeat pop vibes of ‘Love It When We Do’ rung out. The crowd’s noise level rose a fair few octaves too, somewhat confirming that point. ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, another chart classic, prompted reaching for exuberant hands in the audience and watching the lucky few

beam afterwards to their friends was welcome comic relief at our raised perch.

And the hits kept coming, ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’ faithfully reproduced, alongside his inferior version of Cyndi Lauper classic, ‘Time After Time’, his superior version of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Homeward Bound’ and ‘If You Love Me’. ‘This is Your Song’, which Keating informed us, was sung in tribute to his late mother, and a stirring performance ensued.

But of course, we were all here to pay tribute to the late Stephen “Steo” Gately and a prominent black-and-white portrait of him was unveiled behind Ronan as he sang a song they used to harmonize to – ‘In This Life’. A moving number, it was followed by the less so, ’Winter Song’ and ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’, though all went down well with the supportive fan base present.

Cue the mass sing-a-long for Boyzone favourite, ‘When You Say Nothing At All’, though we had to sit through the irritating Ronan solo hits of ‘Lovin’ Each Day’ and ‘Rollercoaster’ before we were even close to seeing the other three ingredients of that particular pop formula. Also, a short preview of ITV2’s ‘Boyzone: Life After Steven’ was shown before the group reunited to mass applause on stage.

Ironically enough, the gig enjoyed its highest points with the revitalised strength of 4 after some personal tributes to Steo, the likes of ‘Gave It All Away’, ‘Hurricane’ and ‘Picture of You’ closed the set and it was clear to see the audience got what they came to see.