Daniel Bedingfield Live

Daniel Bedingfield is on his UK tour. Kernowyouth sent its intrepid reporter Phil Hadley along to sample the atmosphere at his Plymouth gig...

"I'm not dead. I am alive" was the opening song belted out by Daniel Bedingfield to the sell out crowd at Plymouth Pavilions on Thursday 24th March 2005. And in the next 90 minutes he demonstrated that he was very much alive and enjoying life as he led the audience through songs taken from his first two albums.

"Show me the real you and I'll show you the real me" he sang early on. The last time I had seen Daniel Bedingfield live was at the Cross Rhythms Festival as a teenager fronting DNA Algorhythm, the band he'd formed with sisters Natasha and Nicole. Tonight the real Daniel was a more confident showman with a stronger vocal and a great rapport with the audience. The Times had reported his opening night of the tour "confirmed his credentials as a great modern performer." Everything I saw and heard tonight supported that appraisal.

The crowd was mainly made up of female 20-somethings all dressed up for a night out. There were a few boyfriends dragged along for the experience. However they all clapped along, swayed in the slower songs, and held their mobile phones aloft in their hair-raising moments of great intimacy as Daniel sang "I wanna say I'm sorry but I'll do it again."

Daniel, who was born in New Zealand in December 1979 although raised in London, shot to fame in 2001 when the single he recorded in his bedroom became a club hit and then rocketed to No 1 in the UK Top 40. His first album "Gotta Get Thru This" produced a string of hits. He was nearly killed in January 2004 when a car crash during a Youth For Christ camp in New Zealand left him paralysed with severe neck and head injuries. He fought a long battle to recovery, recording his second album "Second First Impression" on the way.

At times the audience were almost singing his songs louder than him, which was quite a feat as his voice filled the auditorium. "You're like a stadium crowd," Daniel told the audience. "I love you." The 2,000 fans had been warmed up well by support act Onehundredhours. The Christian band, pictured left,  had played for half an hour and had challenged the audience to buy a Making Poverty History wristband as a way of helping to tackle the issues of HIV/Aids and poverty in Africa.

"If you're not the one" went down well with the audience who sang along to Daniel's powerful vocal. His band turned in some amazing performances too. Rick James drove some funky rhythms on bass and Jessi Collins on backing vocals was superb. Don Wyatt's keyboards were inspirational while the guitar solos from Eric Appapoulay and Irwin Whittridge brought well deserved applause from the audience. Chris Bailey on drums was amazing throughout.

This was pop as good as it gets. Daniel sang songs of love and life, but songs of a purity in love and a joy in life. There wasn't a single swear word from the stage all night. This was good, clean, very professional first-rate entertainment. Daniel's standards are driven by his Christian faith and that was very much in evidence too. But the audience lapped it up. They sang along "My world changes; Jesus, Jesus, never changes."

There was new material too. Daniel sang a personal prayer, "Peace in the darkness, soften this hardness, create again." This was followed by a superb version of the late Keith Green classic "Create in me a clean heart." The words come straight from Psalm 51: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence O Lord. Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation, and renew a right spirit within me." The audience went wild.

All the hits were there: "James Dean", "Complicated", and "Wrap My Words Around You". And for the grand finale of the encore Daniel  declared "Summer is officially here" as he burst into a reggae version of "Gotta Get Thru This". This was followed by a rock version before he had the audience jumping and dancing with the original version.

Daniel Bedingfield has enhanced his reputation as a great singer/songwriter, as a great performer, and as a Christian who is not ashamed of his faith and the lifestyle it guides him in. And on the basis of the new material I can't wait for the third album. My ticket was worth every penny.

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