Party In The Park Concerts

Hyde Park, London, England (UK)
(Held on Sunday, 5 July 1998)



The party was hosted by Capital FM (The Number One Radio Station in London) in association with the Prince's Trust. The gig was a complete sale out with ticket sales of £15 per ticket. It turned out the be the largest open air concert ever held in the City of London!

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18:10 GMT - (Satellite Stage)
	Arms Around The World Lets Go Round Again Naked
VERDICT: The only problem with Louise's performance, I was told, was that it was on the smaller "Satellite" Stage, and that she mimed. Also that she only did three songs in total. However, most people found it nice to see Louise on stage again!!

I thought Louise was on at an unfortunate time, fairly late on when the crowd were really tired, and immediately after All Saints who had the biggest intro (videos, pyrotechnics exploding on stage, etc), but I thought she did really well getting everyone to clap along. She started with 'Arms Around The World', followed by 'Let's Go Round Again' and finally

'Naked'. For those who haven't seen the pictures, she was wearing a long grey coat (as many artists did that day), which she discarded for Naked, and a sort of light coloured top, sorry can't give much of a description there, sort of silky with thin straps! I wish she wouldn't keep playing with her hairstyle! Personally, I felt the long brown affair she had when 'All That Matters' was released was perfect. On Sunday it was sort of blonde(ish). Never mind. There were four dancers who were wearing blue outfits.

When she finished, the DJ who was presenting at that time made a fuss over how she interrupted her honeymoon to turn up, and she's only been married 6 days and congratulated her on the marriage. She got quite a good cheer too. A lot of people around me went on about how small she was (yawn, big deal) when she went by on the walkway. Someone behind me thought she was cute though didn't think much of 'Arms Around The World', but he was some weird Greek guy who couldn't even sing the 'Party in the Park' jingle properly (honestly, after every act I had to put up with this out of tune "Party in the Paaaaark" behind me!), so I think we can forget his opinion. Later I was on a payphone and overheard a guy from the Daily Mail phoning in his report saying "Among the artists to meet the Prince of Wales backstage were All Saints, Louise, ..... "

As for other artists, well frankly, they were all really good. Even though I'm not a fan of Gary Barlow, Boyzone at all, I have to say they did well and I'm sure their fans went away happy. Natalie Imbruglia had a very strange outfit... looked like jeans, T-shirt and an apron! Someone behind me thought she was cute and had a good voice, but wasn't very entertaining to watch. All Saints were a bit so-so, I didn't have a clue what was going on during one song though it had a good harmony in the chorus. Mel looked a bit strange being noticeably pregnant yet still wearing a crop top. Tina Arena and The Corrs were very impressive. Of course, Eternal were great. Kéllé's outfit caused male jaws to drop, a very impressive red outfit that defies description!

Well, I think that covers the highlights of the day. Oh, and the event has gone into the record books for the loudest recorded cheer ever. With over 100,000 people that's hardly surprising. One nice thing is that at the end of the GQ interview, Louise said "Give me Wembley stadium and I will perform." Well, she's had an audience of 100,000 and I think she performed pretty damn well!!!

(Thanks to Dev Chakravarty for writing this review of the concert.)

The first 5000 people who were into the park first were allowed to go in to a special 'Pit'. Luckily i was one of those people and got very close to the front of the stage. It was a really good atmosphere and everyone was talking to people they didn't know and having a laugh!

Then at about 1:30 Dr Fox from Capital FM Radio appeared and shouted "London are you ready!!??" and with that the whole place went mad with people screaming.

Unfortunatly Simple Minds were unable to go to the gig as one of the members was ill. But then Gary Barlow ran on stage and kicked it off. Then after his 3rd song he told everyone that there would be a guest appearence from a well known mate. Howard Donald (one of the ex-'Take That' members) and together they sang 'Back for good'. Then after that many bands came on and did a few songs each. here is a list of some of the cool bands: Conner Reaves, Del Amitri, Lional Richie, Lutricia McNeal, Ultra Nate, Des'Ree, Shania Twain, B*Witched, Tina Arena and finally the cast of Saturday Night Fever.

There was one thing that was very annoying there was a main stage that everyone could see but then there was a second called the "Aerial Stage" which was a block that moved up and down which bands performed on, so the staff could get the main stage ready for the next act for the main stage. The Aerial Stage was very small and one act performed on it which deserved to be on the main stage - that act was Louise. She appeared at about 5pm with some dancers on the stage. She was wearing a grey/blue suit with a cream coloured strappy top. She has had her hair cut up to her shoulders layered which looks really nice. She performed 3 songs; starting with 'Arms Around The World', and ending with 'Naked'. She also gave a comment about Eternal, "I want to say a big hello to Eternal who are still a big apart of my life and I love you girls!", which was really nice. But I was still disappointed that she couldn't be seen very well and most people had to resort to watching the big screens.

All the other bands were brilliant and I don't think the day could have been any better.

There have been hints that there will be a Party In The Park '99. If there is i will be the first to book my ticket!!!!!! Here's to next year!!

(Thanks to Katz for writing this review of the concert.)

If you have any other concert reports of Louise, or know of any other gigs that she is doing in your area, please pass the information onto me for inclusion on this website - you will, of course, be credited for it! Thank you!

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