Niall Horan opens The Show to a massive pressure wave of high-pitched cheers. The near capacity crowd are primed to show their adulation.
The energy is palpable and physically uplifting, enough to overcome the malaise of a mix of seasonal bugs floating around with this reviewer.
Not as visually bombastic as some of the big Rap shows of last year, but Horan is the centre of attention on the large projected screens, which satiates all desires.
Nice to Meet Ya from Heartbreak Weather (2020) induces another crowd eruption as the lights go up and the band is revealed in their places. Guitar and bass, drummer, two keyboard players and a violinist who alternates with acoustic guitar.
I wanna blow your mind/ Just come with me, I swear. Exuberant Pop which sets the tone for the evening.
Horan, who comes from Mullingar, Ireland is another young musical prodigy. He learnt to play guitar from YouTube videos, a common theme amongst many successful young musicians.
At sixteen he auditioned for the X Factor shows, which eventuated in four other guys being pulled into a common gravitational field. Horan with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson became One Direction, one of the most successful Boy Bands to date.
Although I find myself resistant to this style of music, it does have the relentless charm of the best of Bubblegum. Which also had many detractors when it arose in the wake of Sgt Pepper.
Complaints that it was manufactured pure studio product. Maybe the genesis was the Beatles after all, who retreated to the studios in 1966 and did not perform live again, except for that anomalous Rooftop performance.
One Direction have been showered with accolades since their detonation. They have broken sales and chart records, long held by the Beatles.
Since 2016 and Horan’s first single release as a solo artist, he has continued that momentum.
Horan sits down at the piano to sing The Show, title song of his last proper album released less than a year ago, and to which this stadium tour is dedicated to.
If everything was simple, how would we know/ How to fix your tears, how to fake a show.
Horan makes a point to single out New Zealander Joel Little (who is in the audience tonight), the producer of that song and a few others on the album. Emphasising the importance again of their crucial influence as auteurs of music.
Heaven and Meltdown are big, ecstatic stadium Pop song highlights from that album, all accompanied by electric surges through the big crowd dancing on the ground floor.
Birdy is the performing name of Jasmine van den Bogaerde, an English purveyor of melancholic Folk Pop who opens the show tonight.
She looks tiny on the huge stage, standing behind a keyboard. This songbird has a soprano vocal which can be frail and delicate, and then soar to the heights with dramatic power.
She has old English nobility in her ancestry. Her parents are writers and classical musicians. Her great-uncle was Dirk Bogarde, multi-talented artist especially in cinema.
Birdy is another musical prodigy who gained recognition in her early teens with a songwriter publishing contract with Warner/Chappell.
People Help the People and she quietly commences her set with an introspective commentary. God knows what is hiding in those weak and drunken hearts.
Fragile and tender continues with Not About Angels. Until she sings if you searched the whole wide world, where she lets go with high tones and lots of note bending.
The Arena is close to full capacity and buzzing, but she manages to capture attention with a remarkable voice. Credit also to the sound crew, who balance this perfectly inside the huge space.
I Wish I Was a Shooting Star, off her last album Portraits (2023), is dark in lyrical content belied by a nice Pop swing.
She is a headline act in her own right and provides a nice counterpoint to the Pop bangers that will come with the main act.
Niall Horan also has a softer side to him, as he plays a small set with acoustic guitar and harmonica.
This Town, You Could Start a Cult and especially Dear Patience are slower and intimate ballads, and feature some beautiful violin breaks.
Then the heavy artillery of the drums heralds the full band coming back in with Everywhere.
A huge welcome to Night Changes, taken from his One Direction career.
Throughout the night, Horan is repeatedly effusive about coming to New Zealand and how much he likes being here. Until the truth comes out and he mentions how gutted he felt at the Irish losing to the All Blacks last year.
I had forgotten that it was barely five months ago and must still be raw for the Irish sports fans who had hopes for their first World Cup victory.
Horan’s bio mentions that he is a keen sportsman and has initiated a golf management company in recent years.
Close to the end and Still is a perfect song steeped in Pop adulation. The violin gets a nice cameo.
Encores are demanded of course, and the floor is indeed shaking for Save My Life.
Niall Horan goes out with his massive hit Slow Hands, and the fans end the night raving on.
Rev. Orange Peel
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