It’s probably worth saying that I’m not a massive Britney fan but I managed to blag a free ticket from work for one of her many dates at the O2 and it seemed silly not to go. I really like some of her bigger hits (Toxic, Piece Of Me) and I did buy Hit Me Baby One More Time on CD single back in 1998 so I’d describe myself as a casual fan – I don’t have any of her albums but if I’d been impressed with the gig I would have bought one.
To let the cat out of the bag on this one, I am still a non-owner of a Britney Spears album.
The set up for this tour promoting her latest album, The Circus was built unsurprisingly around a circus theme with Britney as the ring master. In terms of the actual stage, the whole set up of the venue had been changed to accommodate performance in the round, with the main stage moved into the centre of the arena with the audience all around. This was a genius move from my personal perspective as it meant that the corporate box we were in half way down the arena had a fantastic view. It did mean that there were no big screens showing in close up what was going on – some uncharitable people have suggested that this is because it would have been too obvious that she was miming – but the people sat up in level 4 would have struggled to identify which of the small gnats running about on the stage was actually Britney. Also, as she was moving from one ring to another the people at each end of the arena probably had a less than ideal view.
I presume most of the material that was performed in the set was from her most recent albums as I only knew a few songs. As I’ve mentioned previously, I can find gigs where I don’t know the songs to be a bit boring – and I’m sorry to say that this was a definite case of this. There was lots of dancing and circus tricks and the like, but somehow it all got lost in the vast space of the auditorium and just didn’t come across as being that impressive. It felt like a well rehearsed routine rather than an individual show – I hear that when she went up to Manchester she said “hello London” to the crowd, which obviously went down well. I have to say that the couple of songs she played that I knew I really enjoyed – Toxic was great, and she proved that she actually could sing (whilst sitting) when she did Everytime so I’m not sure why she didn’t do more of it.
When the set finished there was no cheering for an encore and when the lights came up the seats in the arena were empty. And I mean, completely empty. People obviously didn’t feel like it was worth staying for any more songs and I can’t say I blame them. The show was quite a spectacle but didn’t make a lasting impact. I can only hope that the Take That version of the Circus contains a bit more fibre…
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