With the third of his concerts, on the hottest night of the year so far, Lee once again displayed his stunning vocals, delivered with passion and tenderness, raw power and cheeky humour as required. His banter with the audience becomes more relaxed with each outing and there were a couple of 'extras' which will live long in the memories of those of us lucky enough to have been there.
Unfortunately, Lee's regular guest singer, Niamh Perry, was unwell and the very talented New Zealand violinist, Fiona Pears, accompanied on the piano by her husband, Ian Tilley, stepped into the breach at the last minute and performed her own beautifully evocative music with great feeling.
Lee's growing confidence, abetted by a nice little gap between stage and front row, saw him venture down to his audience's level during Kiss - strutting his stuff just feet from his delighted fans - before returning to the stage with a triple spin that shouted his enjoyment to the rafters!
A young fan, 6 year old Rachel, who many will remember from the Joseph days, was in the audience and, as Lee talked about his time in the show, he asked for the house lights to be brought up and introduced her. At the end of the concert, with everyone on their feet, Rachel was sitting on her Dad's shoulders at the front of the Stalls and Lee walked across, scooped her up and continued to sing Daydream Believer with her perched on his hip, completely unfazed by the sea of swaying, arm-waving fans in front of her!
For those who have yet to go to a concert, and wish to retain some element of surprise, I apologise for the spoilers above and have put the full set list on a separate page so you can avoid it if you wish!
Full programme
A truly memorable night - but a little reminder never hurts! With thanks to Abs for the first half pics, the second half ones come from closer to home (when I finally remembered I had a camera!) Thanks also to Lou for taking the last one - it has been judiciously cropped to remove unnecessary distractions!
Details of the next and later concerts can be found at:
SKEGNESS - Embassy Theatre - 7.30pm, 25 July 2010