Right I'll try again. Don't know what happened to my first posting. Ah yes, right last night's performance... Bloody awful. I can't even begin to explain the disappointment after waiting so long to see the guy. I've read everyone's comments to date and ok I can appreciate he's young, overworked, etc etc. However at the end of the day that's just it, he is young and doing very well for himself. Fans paid to see a good performance and were sorely let down. I left after 3 songs, I just couldn't bare to watch him any more. Unfortunately what also didn't help matters was I was surrounded by a load of idiots who were clearly in the wrong venue! If you want to go to a rave, then sod off to one and leave the real fans to enjoy. Alas there was no enjoyment for me anyway. Very very sad.

I'll have to agree with you Kirsten. I've been to a few concerts at The Oasis and this was the worst one I've been to. I felt old in the queue and even older inside! I enjoy live music and have enjoyed every song I've heard Paolo do. I thought the crowd would have been more mixed but I was surrounded by teenage screaming girls pushing and shoving to try and get past us! Were they there because he's a great musician or were they there because they just fancy the pants off him and he could do no wrong in their eyes? Guess it's cool to go to concerts without your parents at their age! The fact that it didn't get started to nearly an hour after time the ticket stated was also annoying. Newton was awesome. Sadly I can't say the same for Paolo. I stayed for as long as possible but left early too... wonder how many of the 3000 actually stayed to the end? Such a shame that Paolo wasn't as good as I was expecting him to be.

I have to start by saying "I truly love his album" BUT. I have to admit I too left early last night. It must have been after about the 5th song. The support act was FANTASTIC. I will try to find him on MYSPACE. I didn't come to see him though so after waiting 2 hours standing up to see him, when he finally came out he was clearly P****d and sounded terrible. He sang new shoes .....it must have been the second song. He just didn't try to impress.

sorry you were disppointed....im going to see him tommorrow..hope its not the case then aswell..but him being drunk seems to be a regular thing.

was there an age limit to get in...i know at brixton its under 14's have to be in the seated area. fans was something iw as worried about...i cant stand it if everyones really pushing

there were a few lasses we were standing next to at the blackpool gig and man were they annoying!!!!! When newton was playing he began playing a ukalele and one of the girls turned around and said eeeeeeeh hes playing a eucalyptus!!! LOL and then later when paolo sang dolphins thaught it was about terri!!! and when trying to sing to it replaced the word dolphins with girlfriend!!they were clearly just there because they fancied him!!!

XxX

http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/display..._a_paolo_rubbish.php

I'll tell you what I think is Rubbish;

It appears that parents
took their youngish children to what they expected to be a clap-along, Playschool- Barney, quasi choir boy gig, then felt such anguish at exposing little Molly to a 20 year old who likes his beer, rum, whiskey or whatever,with his green tea for a throat warm-up. Oh the HORROR.

Rubbish is that Paolo and band played their heart out, but a vocal minority got the press. The recording quality is not great on these You tube videos but you can hear that the fans around this particular person were quite happy with the gig. Lot's of singing along, and massive screams and applause at the end of songs. Again, not great quality recordings, probably a little too close to the speakers,or lower end camera, but still you can tell that Paolo was in good voice, hitting the notes with full-on passion. Nice snippet of the Moby cover here

Rubbish are any fans of any band that attend a gig and want to hear the exact same sound as they have on their CD's. IMO Paolo and band excel in a live setting, yeah, he may have a penchant for keeping his eyes closed, and holding on to his mic stand when not holding a guitar ---so what. His sound soars in what seems to be near effortless glides, I don't care that he hunches over. LOL, I think his deep accent and posture are what lead so many first timers into being positively convinced that he is deep, deep in his cups. Poor guy, so misconstrued. He just could not keep up with the band if he were truly so drunk. Those video snippets show that he was fine. Not drunk.

Having said all that I hope that this next series of gigs go well and he gets better press.

quote:

Originally posted by arcoiris:
I'll tell you what I think is Rubbish;

It appears that parents
took their youngish children to what they expected to be a clap-along, Playschool- Barney, quasi choir boy gig, then felt such anguish at exposing little Molly to a 20 year old who likes his beer, rum, whiskey or whatever,with his green tea for a throat warm-up. Oh the HORROR.

Rubbish is that Paolo and band played their heart out, but a vocal minority got the press. The recording quality is not great on these You tube videos but you can hear that the fans around this particular person were quite happy with the gig. Lot's of singing along, and massive screams and applause at the end of songs. Again, not great quality recordings, probably a little too close to the speakers,or lower end camera, but still you can tell that Paolo was in good voice, hitting the notes with full-on passion. Nice snippet of the Moby cover here

Rubbish are any fans of any band that attend a gig and want to hear the exact same sound as they have on their CD's. IMO Paolo and band excel in a live setting, yeah, he may have a penchant for keeping his eyes closed, and holding on to his mic stand when not holding a guitar ---so what. His sound soars in what seems to be near effortless glides, I don't care that he hunches over. LOL, I think his deep accent and posture are what lead so many first timers into being positively convinced that he is deep, deep in his cups. Poor guy, so misconstrued. He just could not keep up with the band if he were truly so drunk. Those video snippets show that he was fine. Not drunk.

Having said all that I hope that this next series of gigs go well and he gets better press.

So very well said!!!!

Thats a much more believable review arcoiris.

I'm amazed anyone heard anything over all the chatter & noise going on so no wonder there are bad reviews, it sounds like a night club with a dodgy stereo & only on speaker working lol

I bet them lads were just jealous because their girlfriends were drooling over Paolo and not them!

did I really say that?

Thanks again arcoiris & thanks for the links too, it nice to hear what all the bother was about (or not about)

quote:

Originally posted by arcoiris:
I'll tell you what I think is Rubbish;

It appears that parents
took their youngish children to what they expected to be a clap-along, Playschool- Barney, quasi choir boy gig, then felt such anguish at exposing little Molly to a 20 year old who likes his beer, rum, whiskey or whatever,with his green tea for a throat warm-up. Oh the HORROR.

Rubbish is that Paolo and band played their heart out, but a vocal minority got the press. The recording quality is not great on these You tube videos but you can hear that the fans around this particular person were quite happy with the gig. Lot's of singing along, and massive screams and applause at the end of songs. Again, not great quality recordings, probably a little too close to the speakers,or lower end camera, but still you can tell that Paolo was in good voice, hitting the notes with full-on passion. Nice snippet of the Moby cover here

Rubbish are any fans of any band that attend a gig and want to hear the exact same sound as they have on their CD's. IMO Paolo and band excel in a live setting, yeah, he may have a penchant for keeping his eyes closed, and holding on to his mic stand when not holding a guitar ---so what. His sound soars in what seems to be near effortless glides, I don't care that he hunches over. LOL, I think his deep accent and posture are what lead so many first timers into being positively convinced that he is deep, deep in his cups. Poor guy, so misconstrued. He just could not keep up with the band if he were truly so drunk. Those video snippets show that he was fine. Not drunk.

Having said all that I hope that this next series of gigs go well and he gets better press.

Very nice said!! Seen some off the vids with your link(thank you for that ) and I really cant see anything thing else about him cant hear his voice that well cuz omg those screaming girls are back again
But he didnt seem drunk to me.....

All the times i have seen Paolo live he has looked at the floor and clearly been nervous - but that is all part of his charm. By just listening to his album you cant get a feel of what he is really about - his concert style is unique and i love it. All of those people who left were crazy - I would have killed to have been there that night.

Count yourselves lucky guys - not everyone could be there - and embrace Paolo !

quote:
Originally posted by Paolo Admin:
Hey Guys, Paolo Admin here.

We’re sorry to hear that some of you didn’t enjoy Paolo’s gig in Swindon – we weren’t there but we know Paolo always does his best to put on an amazing show.

While some shows will obviously always be better than others we’ve asked around and Paolo certainly wasn’t drinking before going on stage in Swindon. We were told that his in-ear monitor cut out for the first few songs so if he seemed a little bit disorientated initially that’ll be why.

Some people have talked about how he was ‘hanging onto the mike stand’ – Paolo always does this whether he’s drunk or not, it’s just his stage style. Trust us; he can stand up by himself if he wants.

As for not being able to understand what he was saying between songs, we must admit that we’ve had this problem a few times ourselves, but then again we’re from down south and Paolo does have a very, very strong Paisley accent. So draw your own conclusions.

Paolo’s a young man on the road and we’re not going to pretend he doesn’t like a drink. But there’s a world of difference between that and being so irresponsible that you can’t give fans the show they deserve. We’re sorry you didn’t enjoy the show but please don’t judge Paolo, and please don’t leap to conclusions about his personal habits, on the basis of one performance.

Best Wishes
Paolo Admin

It's strange to me that all the reporters latched on to the same few negative reviews... i mean, i would have been disappointed by a disoriented performance, but good god, do they need to attack him like that? all of us who know his performances know his mic-hanging, strong accent & all of his different voices.

just sad that he's getting so much flack for a single so-so show out of the hundreds he's given over the last year

can anyone post the setlist?

Sorry iwtbrat, I don't have a set list, but the youtube links above are some of the songs that were played.

Dawnita, If you'll notice the reporter on the Wiltshire article is Gareth Bethell link to Wiltshire article, similarily the writer of the article for Swinden Advert is also Gareth Bethell, link to Swinden Advert so really it is possible that Allor at least most of the articles pertaining to Paolo's Swinden performance will read the same--harsh. Unfortunately these articles seem to published by a massive (2nd largest publisher of regional newspapers in the UK with over 300 titles and with weekly distribution of 10 million weekly copies!!!) company called Newsquest. link to their 'about us' page
The press is notorious for helping to build someone up and then trying to bring them down. Seems to me that this is what might be occuring to Paolo. Just think of some other singer or actor whose work you have admired, they produce some bit of music or movie art that touches us so they ride the popular wave until someone decides that they've been on too long then you start to hear the shocking news that they may be human after all.

Paolo has little control over this tearing down. He and the band have been busting their asses to work with their label to get people to hear their music, attend their gigs, and ultimately buy These Streets. It amazes me that someone I had not heard of a short year ago can have so many concert snippets on line at all the major search engines, photosites, blogs, radio stations. My gawd even the record stores websites have tons of his acoustic in-store performances. He has canvased the world with his passioned performances, but what gets the best press(as in most website views and hits) is that he was acused of being stumbling drunk at Swindon. *i feel bad for him*

Two final things, I'm sure that Paolo has read or at least heard of the things that were written. I hope that he doesn't develop the attitutde of "what the hell, he's been tried and convicted anyway---why don't I just get sloshed to the gills anyway". If similar press continues, I hope he has a thick skin and shows everyone up by penning a great tune out of the experience.

Lastly, we as fans of the live performances can still keep supporting him, and hopefully those that bought and enjoyed These Streets, and were disappointed with his live gig will still find pleasure in listening to it and letting others know about Paolo and his music.