NERDS of the world will unite and rejoice this year as Big Concerts will be presenting some of the most excrutiatingly geeky pro- ductions. Michael Buble, Mama Mia!, One Direction and Michael Flatley are just some of the yahoo-fun-fun-fun! shows they can look forward to.
It all begins next month when the Irish pop rock band, The Script, arrive. They will play the Grand Arena, GrandWest in Cape Town on February 4, the ICC in Durban on February 6 and Crocodile Creek Polo Club in Lanseria, Joburg, on February 7.
James Blunt returns to South Africa with his Moon Landing World Tour which is the title track of his fourth album. Unfortunately, he will not play Durban, although one Durbanite recalls how brilliant his concert at the Durban Botanical Gardens was: “It was thunder- storming and lightning was striking everywhere,” she recalled. “I remember he was just staring at us in amazement because we were dancing and loving every minute. He is fantastic live and performed so well and his band was so good.”
Blunt will perform in Cape Town on February 11 and 12 at the Grand Arena, GrandWest, and on February 14 and 15 he will be at the Big Top Arena in Carnival City, Joburg.
Good news for Durban fans is that Buble will be in the city on March 17 at Moses Mabhida Stadium. In his press release for his To Be Loved album, he says: “I think it’s the best album I ever made. I swear. You can ask my mother. But don’t take my word for it or my mom’s.”
Really? Who writes that? Michael Buble, I guess. He will be performing music from that album as well as other covers.
Buble will then move to Cape Town Stadium on March 19 and to Joburg on March 21 and 22 at the Coca-Cola Dome. Tickets are selling fast so book now to avoid disappointment.
Then, for all the tweeny boppers, that group made up of five Justin Biebers arrive at the end of March. It’s going to be horrible.
The boy band was formed by the Prince of Darkness, Simon Cowell, in 2010 and the world of tweeny boppers, which globally is the most powerful financial sector, have made him a gazillionaire. Proof of this is the fact that this Christmas at Toys R Us, One Direction dolls were a bestseller.
Their fans are known as Directioners and 1D and their horrid hairstyles trend daily on Twitter worldwide. That’s how popular they are. Can’t wait till one of them has the inevitable public meltdown. They’ll play the FNB Stadium in Soweto on March 28 and 29 and on April Fool’s Day they’ll be at Cape Town Stadium. Then, horror of horrors, the Mamma Mia! Experience arrives. And at the expense of fans everywhere, Abba is really one of the most irritatingly overplayed, clichéd, Euro pop groups to have survived the 1970s. To then have a saccharine musical and a film (starring Meryl-Yay-Streep) about a wedding in the Mediterranean is just too awful.
Yet it is perfect for housewives and the proof is in the success of the musical.
It premiered on April 6,1999 in London’s West End and has been watched by 54 million people worldwide and translated into 14 languages. The Mamma Mia! Experience has a four-week season at Montecasino’s Teatro.
There is hope for rock enthusiasts when OneRepublic arrive in June to promote their latest album, Native. They will be at the Coca-Cola Dome on June 19 and in Cape Town on June 21 at Grand Arena.
Finally, Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance: Dangerous Games will be at The Teatro, Montecasino from July 14 to August 8. The lord of the dance himself will make a guest appearance. Geez, he must be the Methuselah of the dance world. Anyway, this man has made oodles of dough in the dance world. The show has grossed more than $1 billion, becoming the highest grossing dance show in history. In South Africa it’s also proved popular, breaking box office records and a 3D film was release in 2011.