At the end of a short 4 day tour in Oxford and London, it is time for
David Brent to put on the last show in
Hammersmith Apollo.
After a stand-up warm up by
Kerry Godliman and
Doc Brown and a quick introduction by
Ewen MacIntosh (also known as 'Keith' from
The Office) - the band enters the stage with David Brent right behind them.
He walks up to the microphone, points to his outfit.. "Fashion innit?" and the show is on! Starting out with a track about driving across America picking up chicks...
Ooh La La.
Halfway through the song, during a guitar solo, he gets a drink of beer, takes his sunglasses off and points to the picture of himself on the curtain behind the band - looking well proud.
The next tune is a bit closer to home as he says - about his chosen profession..
Life On The Road.
This one gets the audience going and people start rocking along in their chairs. And when Brent puts his foot up on a speaker while singing "
Foot down to the floor, 70 miles an hour and no more" the crowd burst into laughter.
Next up is a factually accurate ballad about the best place in the world. At least according to David Brent.. because as he tells the audience, not everyone agrees with him and slags off his hometown
Slough.
This gets the biggest laughs so far. Especially the almost whispering backup vocals on the chorus that goes "
Sloouuugh" gets them going every time. A great guitar solo in this song, also makes the Brentmeister bring out the air guitar for a bit.
Then it's time for a celebration of working hard and playing even harder every weekend when he gets back to Slough to party with his friends...when he can find them. It's also time to take out any children from the room, as there are some adult themed words in this song.
Thank Fuck It's Friday.
This also seems to get everyone in a party mood, as they start clapping along.
The fifth musical number on the set list is a story of how Mr. D. Brent lost this virginity to a gypsy... a
Lady Gypsy! A blue light shines down on David as he sings his story of how it all happened by the lakeside just south of Didcot.
The audience is now fully engaged, laughing, clapping and singing along and Mr. Brent gets a big round of applause after.
Brent gets a bit political with the next track and thinks that's why the second verse was cut out of the documentary. But now we will get to hear the whole song -
Spaceman Came Down, which gets a huge cheer even before the it even begins.
After more applause, Brent then tells about how Dawn had interrupted him when he was singing
Paris Nights, so now we will also hear all of that song. During the guitar solo in the middle of the song Brent acts out how the car crash may have looked.
"
Ok, this next one is political again! Yeah! It's about equality." Brent says as he starts to welcome Dom Johnson to the stage. He explains how Dom is not just black, he's mixed race, which is Brent's favorite and they get into their little banter about Dom's parents - who is black and who is white? Will Mr. Brent ever get it right?
And so, with a giant cheer from the crowd, they start singing
Equality Street, which not only gets the audience dancing in their seats, but also gets the Brentmeister dancing on stage. Especially when Dom is doing his rap, Brent gets into the zone and does his mimics to act out the lyrics and bring out a few of his famous dance moves.
Next up is a cross between country and western.. and Dom. Brent starts to explain what the song is about in his opinion, but Dom interrupts with his own views of the meaning of the song, to much amusement to the audience. Mr. Brent also ensures us that he did do his homework and checked.. there were some! Pointing at Dom and referring to black cowboys. The song is of course
Lonely Cowboy.
Then it's a cross between reggae and calypso in which Brent normally sings with a kind of Jamaican accent, which Dom really wants him to stop doing - "
But do it in your own accent this time!"
Brent explains how the song was written for a Jamaican guy to do, so that's how it should sound.. but he'll try to do it in his own accent.
The music starts playing to
Ain't No Trouble and Brent starts dancing to the rhythm, looking at Dom from time to time, before bursting out in song in his so called Jamaican accent; "
I can't work all day, just to earn a dollar!"
By this time everyone is dancing along in their chairs to the great feel of music - it's simply impossible to sit still to this song. And it's obvious that the crowd is loving Mr. Brent's song and dance, as they sing and clap along.
After this song the crowd goes wild as Brent, Dom and the band exit the stage.
During the concert Brent has been throwing a few t-shirts out into the audience. But when he returns for the encore, he brings in an air pressured t-shirt gun and shoots a couple of t-shirts up to the balcony, looking just as surprised by the power of the gun each time.
The first song in the encore is a new one, about the one thing Mr. Brent would never joke about, the handicapped. As he says, he actually never laughs at OR with the handicapped, just to be on the safe side.
This song is a nice ballad about how you should not make fun of the disabled, but help them.
As always David Brent tries to show off his well meaning ways, by telling us through his song to be kind to those that need it - but as seen and heard before, the way he puts it might be a bit unlucky at times... but again to much amusement to the crowd who are loving the song.
The last song of the show is a real foot stomper, as Mr. Brent would put it and as soon as the music starts, the audience starts going mental and the first few people get out of their chairs to dance along. The song is
Freelove Freeway and it doesn't take long for the rest of the crowd to start singing and dancing along too.
Brent goes to put his sunglasses back on and for the last time on this short tour, bring out the air guitar and his famous dance moves, that the fans love so much.
David Brent got yet another, well deserved, standing ovation and the audience left the Apollo singing and dancing into the streets.
All in all this little tour has been amazing and this little fan is well happy that Brent is back! I am definitely hoping that David Brent will take some more time off from his day job and do some more gigs. The O2 must be next for sure and who knows, maybe an album?
All I'm sure of, is that I'll be the first in line to whatever he decides to do next. What an amazing week it's been!
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Below, a few photos of the show taken by various fans.
