Thursday night took us to Greenwich London where we met up with a few friends to have one of those privileged soul experiences that stay with you for a very long time. It was to see the O’jays perform at “Indigo” a satellite venue contained within the massive O2 arena. Entering the O2 is so spectacular it feels like you are entering into a giant space ship full of individual pleasure domes with unique mood lighting resulting in an ambiance of much excitement and great expectation. It’s surrounded with some very artistic buildings sculptures and wide avenues to herd the people forward into the enormous cavern of night pleasures creating a “build” in anticipation of what is ahead.
The concert venue was actually very intimate and had a sort of night club feel to it. It had what is commonly known as stalls this being a standing or dancing area and then several tiers of seating up above. We were in the seating area looking down on the stage. Being honest I would have to say it felt a little quiet to me, it could be that I am used to being in the stalls at concerts or it could have been that this being the first night of their tour and it being a Thursday it meant that there was going to be a few empty seats as most would have selected Friday or Saturday night as their preferred ticket options.
Ahead of the performance there was a Dj warming the clubbers up with a selection of Philadelphia type sounds of which some enticed a few to actually start dancing in the upper balcony as well as the lower stalls. We did see a few familiar faces from all over the country that we knew.
I must say I felt a little concerned, this being their first night I felt that they may have felt a little underwhelmed at not seeing a capacity crowd. It could be that my own expectations were too high as I wanted the best of welcomes for them on their first night , as it turned out my concerns were a bit silly a few empty seats did not detract them from their performance at all.
The guys being “professionals” came out and gave us their very best and delivered every title with such perfection with so much ease that you could be forgiven for forgetting how old these guys actually are, their experience in performing over the years was self-evident capitalizing in capturing every ear in the house. Their moves on stage were choreographed to perfection they looked so amazing.
The youngest member has been with the two elders for twenty years alone, and the two elders have known each other from being seven years of age. They are now in their seventies I think you will agree that is some achievement, true brothers of soul.
With regards to the actual performance for me it was the slower tempo tunes which really showcased how each vocalist had perfected the training of each voice over the years to deliver the most perfect of soul marriages resulting in one unifying sound that embraced your affection to almost make you feel like crying, the emotion displayed by each one was so moving. In fact I would have to say each one of them as an individual voice could have made it in their own right.
The crowd lapped the songs up often standing and dancing in their seats many shouted their favorite tracks, we also had a few laughs at Walters sexy delivery , well with a voice like that I bet he could charm the birds from the trees. The two hours went by so quickly taking us up and down the with a roller coaster of tempos ending with a fabulous finale being the funky sounding “For the love of money”
We all went home happy and wanting more which is how every true professional wants to leave a stage. I heard the Friday night spawned a capacity crowd and the performance was as polished as the night before.