ShareRonan Keating performing his Time Of My Life tour at The Royal Concert Hall Nottingham on Thursday 22nd September 2016
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
As the lead singer with one of the biggest ever Irish boy bands, Ronan Keating has been a familiar face on the music scene since the early 90s, and the Royal Concert Hall was packed to capacity last night, proving that there is still very much a following for the Dublin singer.
With a six piece backing band kicking off the set with a musical introduction, Keating appeared on stage to the first excited screams of the evening, and unleashed the title track of his latest album, Time Of My Life. As audible shouts of “I love you Ronan” were heard throughout the auditorium, proving that older women can scream just as loud for their musical heroes as any teen; Keating kept them on their feet with his early single, Lovin’ Each Day.
Dressed all in black with a scarf hanging from his back pocket, Keating still looked every inch the boy band heartthrob. He has been releasing his own solo material on and off since the early 2000s, and during that time he has done a lot of maturing. Showcasing nine tracks from his latest album, which he explained he had spent most of 2015 writing, might have been a mistake. But luckily for Keating most of this lively audience had heard the new songs before and were not shy at singing along to them.
He treated this eager audience to both singles from the new album; Let Me Love You and the delightful, Breathe. Landslide was followed by the Nashville inspired As Long As We’re In Love, before an effort was made to replicate Keating’s kitchen, with six stools for himself and the band members brought to the front of the stage as they delivered The Way You Make Me Feel and another new track, She Knows Me.
The set list was peppered with classic hits from his Boyzone days including Father And Son and One More Song. If Tomorrow Never Comes had the crowd singing along as did When You Say Nothing At All. There was a fantastic cover of Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl, which went down a storm before he closed the main set with Life Is A Roller Coaster.
With a voice that like the man is showing none of its age, and with his charismatic on stage banter, he left this audience wanting more. On this showing it was pretty safe to assume, that this Nottingham crowd had had the time of their lives.
