Venue : Mayflower Theatre , Southampton 
Support : Bobii Lewis 

When Craig David announced that he would be doing some shows in his hometown of Southampton I wasn't too fussed as it was at the Agaes Bowl but then his gigs got moved to The Mayflower. The only tickets left were crap ones until a few weeks later they put some better seats up for sale. I decided to see if I could try for tickets and don't ask me how but we managed to get front row seats. This was my first gig at the theatre as they always have musicals , dance productions and plays on but hardly anything music related. I know I said I didn't like Craig David when I saw him at Bestival but seeing him in a different environment made the night a lot more exciting. 


Craig's support was Bobii Lewis. I had never heard of Bobii before so I was intrigued to hear his music for the first time. Bobii has a very hip hop influenced sound and I think he's worked with Wretch 32 before. He wasn't my sort of thing but he was very much the perfect fit for a Craig David gig. 

As soon as Craig walked onstage the whole of the theatre exploded into a massive cheer of excitement. His set started off with his band that perform with him when he's not doing his TS5 sets. I hadn't seen him with his band before so I was excited to see what that was like. His band were great and you could really tell that they were having as much fun onstage as Craig. The audience was dancing along and I don't think anyone stopped dancing. I've never seen a theatre become so lively before and I think that was pretty great to see. 

 Craig played a mixture of songs from his latest album and his older albums that he released when he was first starting out. The whole theatre was singing along , it was like being at a giant party. Craig's band came to a stop when the change over for his TS5 set to begin. If you don't know what TS5 is , it's basically a DJ set but with a twist. Craig basically sings his songs over the top of backing tracks that aren't his songs and also throws in a few of his actual songs in the mix too. It was like being at some sort of Ibiza party , it was a weird experience. This was my 2nd TS5 set I had seen so I knew what to expect and wowee I'd forgotten how crazy they get. 

So I've mentioned about how excited the crowd got and I may have made a few observations because I'm nosey and I like to see what's happening around me. There was a man stood next to me having the time of his life. He was properly going for the dad dancing and it was wonderful. A woman that was probably 4ft couldn't see so she stepped out into the isle to take a photo and as she went to take the photo , a security guard literally bounded towards her and plonked her back into her designated area. There was people of all ages there which is always nice to see. 

Having a gig in a theatre sounds a bit weird but I actually rather liked it. It felt a lot safer than your usual venue because no one was rammed into a giant crowd , plus it made it a lot easier to see as I had no tall people in the way as we had front row seats. I mean you couldn't have a heavy metal band in their as the theatre would probably be trashed. We did leave a bit early again so we could catch the ferry home but other than that we saw most of the gig. 

I actually had a great evening and I can't wait to head back to The Mayflower in a few weeks as I'm seeing Beautiful: The Carole King Story with my grandparents which I'm very excited about as I love Carole's first album , Tapestry. My next gig is Lady Gaga which is going to be a huge deal for me as Gaga got me through some crap stuff when I was at school when I was younger. If you ever get the chance to see Craig David and if you like to party then definitely go and see him if you can because he's great live.