Monday 17th March, Bournemouth International Centre
I returned home from Brighton with some absolutely amazing memories (and a stinking cold which soon developed into a chest infection which kept me off work for 3 days). ? Luckily I was well enough to travel to Bournemouth the following week for the fourth concert of my own mini X Factor Tour. This was the venue nearest to Sean & Sarah’s home town and I’d been told that many of their extended family members would be present at the concert and at the Meet and Greet. Sure enough, the room was filled with an array of children in Same Difference t-shirts and Sarah & Sean spent a huge amount of time with each and every one of them (Sarah especially, who was often to be seen carrying around an adorable little girl in an SD t-shirt which was approximately five sizes too big for her). I managed to grab a quick Hi and a hug with Sarah early on and finally spoke to Sean after about 40 minutes. We exchanged a big hug and I was able to thank him personally for all he & Sarah had done in Brighton the previous weekend to make the evening so special for the girls.
While I was waiting to speak to Sean I made sure I had a few words with each of the other acts to tell them how much I was enjoying the tour. Many of them were keen to know which venues I’d been to and which I’d enjoyed the most. They were all very down-to-earth and I especially enjoyed talking to the lovely Alisha.
Rhydian was a real gentleman, very humble and particularly complimentary about Sean & Sarah when he found out I was there to see them first and foremost. I re-assured him that he was my second favourite and that I had cast some votes for him, and he very kindly stayed to have a photo taken with me and my friend, even though management were hassling him to leave. He insisted that we’d been waiting a long time and it was the least he could do. As I said, a real gentleman.
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The concert itself was another cracker, with all the acts getting a very warm reception (some being warm, some being hot and one inparticular on fire). Like Brighton, Bournemouth is quite an intimate venue which affords good views from virtually everywhere. For this concert I actually felt that I was closer to the stage sitting in the third row than I had been in the front row in Sheffield. As mentioned previously, the venue was the closest on the tour to Sean & Sarah’s home town and they had a lot of family members in the audience. I reckon they must have had a lot of friends and die-hard fans too, because the reception they got was a-maaazing! Dozens of young children (and some not so young) dashed down to the front of the arena when Same Difference were announced and more and more swarmed forward throughout their set. It definitely felt like a homecoming gig and I felt very fortunate to be there for it. I was also lucky enough to get some fairly decent video footage of Sean & Sarah performing Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.
XF Tour Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now Video
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