Tag Archives: Bring Him Home Tour

Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song 2019: Number Seven

Number seven in this year’s countdown to find your favourite Alfie Boe Best Live Song is a new entry, the first this year and is from Alfie’s Bring Him Home tour:

Nominated and Filmed by Chelley, In My Daughter’s Eyes was a fixture in Alfie’s live set for a few years and is from his second Decca album, Alfie. Although this is a new addition to the live song poll, the song has featured in the top ten for best recorded song on a couple of occasions.

In some of the many interviews Alfie gave around the release of Alfie in 2011, he said that he chose the song for his daughter, Grace, as he had already chosen Song to the Siren for his son, also Alfie and for whom the album is named (Alfred Robert was born on New Year’s Day the following year).   Besides being a beautiful song, I think it holds a special resonance to anyone who is or has a daughter. In My Daughter’s Eyes was written by James T Slater for Martina McBride’s 2003 Martina album:

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Alfie Boe Announces Concert in Isle of Man

Alfie Boe’s Summer concerts are over and as we head into Autumn, fans are keen to know when they can next see Alfie perform live.  The wait is over, at least for fans who can get to the Isle of Man as Alfie is today announcing a show at the Villa Marina, Isle of Man.

The show is on 6 November and will feature Lauren Samuels as a guest artist; those fans who were at Kenwood House will remember Lauren was one of the support artists on that day.

Tickets will go on sale at 10am on Friday 31 August – click here.

Alfie has performed a couple of times before on the Isle of Man, on the first leg of his Bring Him Home tour and again at a fundraiser for the island’s hospice in 2014, so he obviously likes it there!

Alfie is currently preparing for the release of his new album so I expect many of the songs from that will feature – let me know if you end up going!

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Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song 2018: No. 6

The countdown to the summer concerts continues and we are now at number six.  So far, so good but this week there’s a difference: two songs tied for sixth!  The first is a song that has featured in all the previous Best Live Song polls and was first seen in 2012 on Alfie’s Bring Him Home tour:

The song was written by Albert Brumley, a musician and singer born in Oklahoma in 1905. After studying at the Hartford Musical Institute, Arkansas, Brumley toured with the Hartford Quartet and went on to write / copyright an astonishing 800 songs. The most famous of these is I’ll Fly Away from 1932. In 1970 he was inducted into the Country Song Writer’s Hall of Fame and his songs have been covered by amongst others, Bob Dylan.

The second song is a new entry and featured on Ball and Boe’s 2016 chart topper, Together (46 seconds in is the best bit of this video):

The song is of course A Thousand Years, one of my favourite songs from both the Together tours and album.  Written for the soundtrack of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1, the song was written by Christina Perri and David Hodges and recorded by Perri.  Released in 2011, the song has charted three times, eventually reaching number 13.

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Shawn Alexander’s Six Sensational Songs

Shawn Alexander is the latest fan to choose her six favourite Alfie Boe songs  Shawn says that she “originally learned of Alfie through Michael Ball. I’m a big fan of Michael’s – then watching the Les Mis anniversary concert I was introduced to Alfie. With living in the states and in Florida I don’t have many opportunities to see shows. When Michael and Alfie were in NY I just HAD to go – I’m a single Mom, and I don’t spend foolishly but I just had to treat myself.”

These are Shawn’s choices, chosen simply because they are her favourites.

Love Reign O’er Me from Classic Quadrophenia – Shawn saw Alfie perform this in New York and it “moved me to tears”.

Along with Shawn’s first choice, Bring Him Home is the most popular song in this series, each having been chosen six times.

Someone to Watch Over Me

Maria, from West Side Story.

It Was A Very Good Year – this song provides one of the best moments on the DVD of the Bring Him Home tour, Alfie Live!

When I Fall in Love.

Yet again, I’m taken aback by the depth of Alfie’s repertoire – four of these six songs have not been chosen before!  If you would like to see your six songs featured, please fill in the form:

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Celebrating Meeting and Greeting with Alfie Boe

Coming to the end of January and we can start to look forward to a new Alfie year with some new shows and new music scheduled for this year.  Those going to the Japanese concerts won’t have to wait very long to see Alfie but before you know it, June will be upon us and Fleetwood, London, Scarborough and Llangollen will be blessed with many Alfie’s Arrows descending upon them. For those of you not in the know, Alfie’s Arrows was a term chosen by Alfie fans several years ago; Alfie liked it and the merchandise of the time produced Alfie’s Arrows badges.  Give me a shout if you’ve got one!

All fans would probably love to meet Alfie, even if they became somewhat tongue tied when speaking to him! If this is you, you are not alone!  One of the most exciting things for fans is to enjoy a meet and greet experience with Alfie and over the years, these have changed format, from the very informal to the ‘sign and pose’ opportunity of recent years.  Having said that, a meet and greet experience is still very special and seeing that Alfie smile just for you really does make your day, or even, dare I say, your year?!

Needless to say, apart from the actual “hello, how are you” and signing part of a meet and greet, the moment captured in a photo is the icing on the cake and a lasting memento of the day.  Here are a few fans who sent me their photos, as well as a few taken at stage doors etc:

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Thank you to everyone who sent me their photo, I just love seeing the happy faces!  If your photo is featured here, please click here to send me your meet and greet story and it might feature in a future post!

If this has whetted your appetite for your own meet and greet this year, click here to see availability at Fleetwood, Kenwood House and Scarborough.

If you would like to see your photo and story included then please fill in the form below:

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On This Day, 9 July 2015, Alfie Boe Sang…

Come What May with Sophie Evans at Llangollen:

Two years ago, Alfie was performing at several festivals, much as he has just done with Michael Ball, and Come What May was again part of his repertoire, albeit usually as a solo.  In Llangollen though, the song was performed as a duet with Sophie Evans, who was also on the bill for that event; Sophie had also appeared with Alfie at Singleton Park earlier a few weeks previously.

Come What May is of course from Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge, one of my favourite films of all time – who doesn’t love a film that you can sing along to, swoon over Ewan McGregor and then have a good cry at the end?  Alfie has sung this song with a variety of partners over the years, from poll winner Rebecca Newman to, at the other end of the scale, Mel C but the one that sticks in my mind the most is Laura Wright from the Bring Him Home tour:

I’m sure I’m not the only one who loved Alfie and Laura together!

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Alfie Boe 4th Annual Best Ever Song: No.8

Last week we saw the first of our two new entrants to the top ten in the 2017 Best Alfie Boe Song poll and this week sees our second new entrant; funnily enough, both newbie songs are from the same album, Alfie:

Despite Wheels of a Dream being one of Alfie’s most performed songs, dating back to the Bring Him Home tour, it’s one of his most popular, as attested to here by the sharp intake of breath on this video when we hear the first few notes.  Fans also like the lyrics of this song, seeing as Alfie lives in America and has a wife named Sarah!

The song is taken from the 1996 musical, Ragtime which opened on Broadway in 1998 and in the West End in 2003, netting an Olivier Award for Maria Friedman in the process – Maria featured in 2016’s Ball and Boe TV show.  Here are the original Ragtime stars, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald:

Stay tuned for number 7 next week!

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Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song 2016: 6 to 5

Following on from last week’s installment of Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song poll 2016, we have now arrived at the half way stage, with two songs that tied for second place in 2014.

Number six in the countdown is a song that hasn’t appeared in Alfie’s set list since the Bring Him Home tour and is quite tricky to find on YouTube (although it does feature on the Alfie: Live DVD) but luckily, we have Nikki Lewis to thank for recording Jacob’s Ladder in Birmingham, 2011:

Jacob’s Ladder is a spiritual, gospel tinged song that has been recorded by a variety of artists including Bruce Springsteen and Paul Robeson – click here to see these two completely different versions of the song.

As mentioned earlier, the song that was voted in at number five is the song that tied with Jacob’s Ladder for second spot last time and of course it’s Barcelona with Laura Wright:

Laura and Alfie’s voices work so well together and the audience here clearly thought so too.  Laura tweeted a photo the next day accompanied by “giving it some welly on the high notes last night” – well, there’s plenty of high notes Laura! Although this is the only footage we have of Alfie and Laura singing this together, Alfie did appear as a guest on Katherine Jenkins’s Home Sweet Home album singing Barcelona.

Barcelona was originally written by Freddie Mercury and Mike Moran and recorded by Mercury and the Spanish soprano, Montserrat Caballe in 1987.  Memorably, it featured heavily during coverage of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.  Here is the original:

As we know, Alfie is a keen Queen and Freddie Mercury fan and during his ITV Perspectives programme on Mercury, he was seen backstage before the Barcelona song saying it was “quite a big sing”.  I also seem to remember he was messing about with his hair quite a lot as well!

Alfie: Live DVD and Home Sweet Home are available here:

Alfie BHH DBD

katherine jenkins katherine jenkins

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Alfie Boe’s Best Live Song: The 2016 Results

In the countdown to Scarborough, we’ve been voting to find out  fans Favourite Alfie Boe Live Song and this seems an even more perfect time to be doing this now we know about the Together Tour. This is the second time we’ve run this poll and I’m sure there’ll be a third time – we’ll hopefully have some duets with Michael Ball in the running next year.

The top five last time around was:

Don’t Stop Me Now

Rank Strangers

You Are My Hearts Delight

Buona Sera

Jacobs Ladder / Barcelona

Will they all feature in the same order this time?  Over the next few weeks we’ll be revealing all, starting now with numbers 9 and 10.

In at number 10, we have a new entry, the James Bond Medley from Strictly in 2011.

Alfie also sang this on his Bring Him Home Tour that year and appears on the Alfie: Live DVD in which he quips “it’s not the same without the dancers, is it?”  I think Alfie’s voice is tailor made for the traditional Bond themes although perhaps it’s sacrilege to think of anyone other than Dame Shirley Bassey singing Diamonds are Forever or Goldfinger.

Number 9 is also a new entry to the top ten but like the Bond Medley, is not a new song.  Indeed, both are songs that haven’t been part of Alfie’s repertoire for a while now so it’s good to see fans have long memories.  O Sole Mio / Now or Never, however, may be popular not just to the song but the memory of that wonderful summer four years ago when everyone was looking at London for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics:

O Sole Mio is a song that goes a long way back for Alfie and he has performed it many times over the years although only for a period of twelve months or so in conjunction with Now or Never.  Now or Never, of course, is a version of O Sole Mio, first recorded by Elvis and went on to be his second best selling single.  The song went on to feature (albeit in a completely different arrangement) on Alfie’s Storyteller album.

Numbers 7 and 8 in the countdown will be revealed next Monday!

Alfie: Live DVD and Storyteller album are available here:

storytellercdAlfie BHH DBD

Alfie Boe and Michael Ball: Together Tour information can be found here.

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thoughtsofjustafan’s Birthday Bonanza

It’s our birthday! Two years old today  – woohoo!  It’s been a fabulous year, interviewing Alfie, interviewing several of the former and current Jean Valjean actors and of course, becoming the Official Alfie Boe Fan Blog at the end of February.

To celebrate, I’ve got a new competition for you!  Up for grabs are three signed Finding Neverland playbills.  All you have to do is be a subscriber to this blog and answer the following question:

Winners will be picked on Friday 6 May – good luck!

Thank you for reading and sharing this blogging journey with me – wouldn’t be the same without you.  Thank you for all your comments, I love reading them all so keep them coming!

This is one of my favourite videos from the last twelve months, what’s yours?

We don’t get to hear that very often these days, after being a staple of Alfie’s earlier Bring Him Home tour.

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