The Fugees in MANCHESTER (Dec, 13th 2005)

[fugees-online]

Review by AJD (from Runboard)

Ok im really **** at remembering stuff so il just tell you brief stuff and let others worry about teh details

Anyway, the venure was half full and the mood of the crowd was a bit meh. They showed up late, like 9.40 or somthing.

As other people have said Wycleff is the showman, he came out and warmed up the crowd with a 'freestyle' and no woman no cry.



Then Lauryn and pras turned up. From the off Pras just stayed in the background while Lauryn and Clef headlined.

Best performance of the night was Lauryn doing 'Lost ones'.. i think this is when i had the most energy and jumped lots.

Wycleff ran up to some old guy aswell and started shouting at him to 'Bounce'.. that was well funny. He ran about the crowd aswell while singin perfect gentleman. I used to hate him but I admired his showman ship here.

Clef and Lauryn interacted more than i expected.

Er.. what else... Lauryns voice.. brilliant. She seemed quite lazy on some songs like 'Fugeela' and let the backing singers do most of the work, but on killing me softly she nailed it.

She also did a little acapella 'Il be working my way back to you babe, with a burning love inside'.. you know how it goes.

Like I said I can never rememeber much but meh.

Bottom line is, the show was AMAZING. lmao.

At the end when all the lights come up lauryn come back out and did an accapella version of 'my love'. Then she wanted to carry on but they turned her mic off. she wasnt impressed by that so she just turned and waved to the crowd.

She did the sweaty towel throwing thing aswell.

OH YEAH TOTALLY FORGOT

On manifest the opening line was 'I loved hard twice'

Well i think it was.. somebody back me up! Because I was like.. 'Bugger, Zee rumors are true'

[fugees-online]

Review by LBoogie (from Runboard)

Okay, my turn now. and OH MY GOD....this was perfect, let me think. okay, it started with Wyclef, alot of Political talk, which was just great, slating Bush. he also was like "you all think "twista is the fastest rapper on the block" and then came out with well wow...i really dont know, but it was an amazing rap. Lauryn doing killing me softly was just awesome, that was AHHHHHHH!! amazing!! everything was amazing!! Wyclef was working the crowd really wll, na d clef and Lauryn were working so well together, they did this reallycool little echoy think "funny money change a situation" - same as in Milan i guess. The energy was just pure crazy on ready or not and fu-gee-la, Pras might as well have not been there, poor bloke. Lauryn was doing crowd interation also, as AJD, but i promise Jaypeg will tell you more about that...AS SHE WAS FRONT ROW< but i think se'll want to tell you her story! I cant remeber everything right now, there is just too much. Sacred love at the end was amazing...i wish she could have kept going, Lauryn was laughing and dancing throughout, clef was working the crowd, and tryng on the staffs jackets, and pras...was....void. i have some good pictures too THANKYOU ROSS!!! That was the best day of my life....it was the best concert ever, for sure, for sure for sure!!! WOW...i need a minute to let it sink in...i will post as i remeber.
Peace! ill upload my pics in the gallery asap

[Disgusted]

it was bollocks - late on stag, shambolic throughout, distorting sound system, shite dj to start things off - I feel cheated - want to know how much love they howed - last tune - stage blacked out and GONE ---- thats not the way to respect your crowd.

At one point Lauren announced it was a work in progress, that may be the case but don't charge £40 to let people see you practice - get it right first.

I am shocked.

Respect to Lauren who at least attempted to round matters off properly.

[Disgusted]

it was bollocks - late on stage, shambolic throughout, distorting sound system, shite dj to start things off - I feel cheated - want to know how much love they showed - last tune - stage blacked out and GONE ---- thats not the way to respect your crowd.

At one point Lauren announced it was a work in progress, that may be the case but don't charge £40 to let people see you practice - get it right first.

I am shocked.

Respect to Lauren who at least attempted to round matters off properly. Even then people were on the way out - the crowd didn't know what to make of things, was it over, wasn't it.

[bitin zealot]

The sound set-up was crap. The event was disorganised and underpromoted. There was no big screen, none of the usual MEN gooies - Destiny's Child had all this down - and I'll bet Kanye does next year!

But once clef took the show by the scruff of the neck "I'm gonna make you forgive me!" all was forgiven. (at least from where I was standing) They delivered classic after classic - most of "the score", libra, and some highlights of their solo efforts.

I had to pay £50 to get into work the next day - I missed the last train because I couldn't bring myself to leave. I was just feeling it too much!

The fugees are incredible - its a shame they didn't give it 100% - because they have the potential to conquer the world. As it was, they blew my mind while barely breaking into a sweat.

[Harry 02070472097]

i thought it was amazing. Dont know what that song was at the end though, sacred love? who sang it orginally? must have been a relief for the band to play to an english speaking crowd for once. I didnt realise what an amazing singer lauryn was....thought it was all the studio equipment that made her sound good on the records. btw, what they were saying was "its funny how money change the situation", it was an intro to one of the songs, they also did a similar thing with "another mc died tonight" I have one half decent photo of the event, but wouldnt know how to post it on a forum like this. Hope you all enjoyed it, i did, my only prob was that the crowd was real tame in my section, but we just danced anyway, i think the band prob noticed us because we were the only ones dancing in the block.

And to the hate spreader above, what was wrong with the dj? he was scratching his heart out.


PS: does anyone here rekon the band reads this forum from time to time?

[lady Lush]

I thought the Concert was heavi, yeah the crowd were a bit tame but lauryn and Clef smashed it, my personal favourites were ready or not, Doo-wop and Zealots.

I think that it was definatley worth the £40 i paid because to witness Lauryn Hill sing killing me softly is priceless. End of.

[leroy1 manchester]

they smashed it u cant put a price on seeing lauren hill sing ready or not or killing me softly live,clef did have to work up the crowd cos the support act wasnt really in fitting with the type of crowd that was in ,i thought when i seen how empty the arena was that the bad atmosphere would ruin it and id waited so long to see them,BUT the fugee energy turned it around which meant instead of a half empty arena we got a half full rocking intimate gig.i didnt want it to end and neither did lauren a true nubian queen,did any of you notice ger husband rockin the drums QUALITY. leroy manchester.

[Big-D]

Thanks for the reviews

[fugees-online]

Review by Jaypeg (from Runboard)

Ok so i couldn't wait till tomorrow.. I had to come straight on here to see the pics and hear the reviews... My story has been so hyped up in this post that I'm a bit scared now you'll all think its crap! (Compared to your story in the sky Terrence its going to be so dull in comparison!!!)

Firstly I'll start by saying the concert was amazing... I was HYPER active after it finished so I apologise to all my lovely friends (Em, AJ, James) I was just so excited. Ross and I were originally meant to be sitting 10 rows back but we spotted 2 spare seats up front which we moved to hoping the people wouldn't turn up. When the concert started there was no way I could stay in my seat so I went right down to the front of the stage and thankfully nobody bothered. It was SO close, any closer and I would have been on the stage!! So MUCH more closer than Stuttgart for those of you there, I could literally reach out and touch them at any time.... I've got to be honest the set list is just a blur to me.... all I know is the music was amazing, Lauryn was on top form. She and Wyclef were very touchy feely and smiley to each other, no hints of any atmosphere just looked like good friends. Lauryn was also very affectionate to Pras and put her arm around him during one of the songs. He did look really lost and spent 80% of the show at the back of the stage next to the drums. It was all Lauryn and Wyclef.



So anyway blah, blah, show was great now I'll tell you why it was so special to me. For a start lauryn reached out and touched my hand.... yes I have made contact with the all mighty great one:-) I was dancing about with this girl (she was black and this becomes apparant in a minute), we just got really friendly and were laughing and screaming.. when Wyclef was talking we both screamed Lauryn and Wyclef said to her the people love you Lauryn you need to be talking (which was true because she was letting Wyclef do most of the talking) she came forward smiled at us and nodded her head in a gesture of thanks. After a few more songs this girl had her arm around me and Lauryn came up to us and said something along the lines of "things are moving real faster than i could have hoped" and winked at us. (I take it she meant because she was black and i was white and we were dancing about and had our arms locked together as we were jumping around... i would like to point out that this is not my normal kind of behaviour to act like an arse but its not everyday Lauryn is within a foot of you.) So THEN after all this she bent right down on her knees right in front of us and sang the song 'you to me are eveything, the sweetest song that i could sing, oh baby' (sorry can't remember the proper title) She sang the whole first verse, the chorus and the start of the hook and didn't move her gaze from me and this girl once .... NO movement of the head just staring directly at us both as though nobody else was there... This was for the WHOLE song :-) It was quite intimidating but so amazing.... we both just sang along with her and then at the end she just laughed and did that wee coy thank you but i'm embarrassed face.... and winked at us again! It was the most amazing thing thats ever happened to me... she was almost eye level with me (i could hear her breathing she was so close) and just kept staring directly at us. It was our own personal serenade. It was unreal... it was a dream... I am so overcome, it was very emotional. Lastly, when Wyclef was doing a freestyle near the end she kept staring at me and this girl, she was very aware of us and when we laughed at some of Wyclefs jokes she laughed and nodded her head again at us.

Lauryn could not have done enough to make this concert so special for me, I said to Sis on the phone lasy night that it almost felt like she recognised me but i'll never know. She was very intimate and made crazy amounts of eye contact... The serenade really was the icing on the cake and I do feel so honoured.

Thank you so much to everyone I met.... You were all soooo lovely and cute..... sorry i was on cloud nine when we came out but I just couldn't take it all in.... the girl I met was just hyper too.... she stayed with Ross and me for ages after the concert she didn't want it to end!!! I think I'm gona keep in touch with her, she got my number so maybe one day she'll be able to come on here and give you her own version!

Last night really was a once in a lifetime experience that i'll treasure. Lauryn Hill has such immense spirit she just captures you, 10 out of 10 from me!

[Big-D]

You're so lucky man,thanks for the great review

[Jon]

I didnt even relise they were late - it was only when Clef apologised that I noticed.

The best part of the night was early on between songs when Clef starts "its funny how money change a situation" - he just said it normally and Lauryn kind of ingnored it and walked over to the drums. So he says it again with a little more rhythmn and people in the crowd started laughing (the one who understood what was comin).
Lauryn walked over to him, put her hand on his arm semi-sung "another emcee lose his life tonight". he said "nah, its funny how money change a situation - we gon' settle this" and they went into Lost Ones. He's really funny during that song - dancing round way more than neccesary and rappin to every line - kinda like to let people know that he gets the joke - its good tho.

Lauryn didnt sing "you to me are everything...." at all sorry, when Wyclef told her she needs to talk to the crowd more she did three bars of "Working my way bakc to you babe...." by the Detroit Spinners acapella and the crowd went nuts.

Later on when she came back out she did a few lines of "The Heathen" by Bob Marley, then talked to the crowd. I cant remember perfectly but she definitely said "we're coming back", "its been a work in progress - im workin on myself - likke i said im workin my way back to you babe". Then she did the towel thing (literally wipin her makeup with them and throwin them into the crowd) and sang "Sacred Love" - then they switched her mic off (mid-line) and she shrugged her shoulders, finished that line, waved and found more towels to throw in. and did a little nod (like "thank you") - it was real nice.

The early reviews i read of the first shows said that she was not communicatin with the audiences but i really think this tour could have helped her see how much people still want to see her/them and thats why shes loosenin up as it goes on.

Her and Clef really compliment each other on stage- there's a good connection. i love clef but at one point a few years back he did get a bit too "corny" at times and im sure many will agree that at times lauryn's solo sets could get a little bit too "deep" (remember how they dissed Unplugged?) but when they're on stage together it all balances out. She looks a little less uptight, and Clef is a bit more serious - but both keep their energy.

Havin mentioned Unplugged I guarantee you that if Lauryn's new album or the new Fugee album blows up, all the critics will start labellin that as classic. Callin it "raw emotion" & "lyrically ahead of its time". Remember all the things we said when it first came out??

By the way, Clef's verses (obviously pre-written -ill guess their from this reunion album) are kinda hot. He's gettin back there - you can tell he's steppin his game up for her.

The show was great and has left me so excited for a reunion album.

j

[1nspire]

I was there too on Wednesday night. I have mixed feelings about the concert though. I was not impressed with the Fugees lateness. I gathered it was because of delays at the airport and Wyclef explained the reason why with his lyrical flow, lol!

But anyways I am a true Fugees fan and I still love their music. They performed tracks from their previous albums and 'Killing me Softly' will always be one of my favourites. It sounds sweet, live. As said before in previous posts, Wyclef took the lead most of the night and his freestyles were amazing. Lauryn was kind of quiet and I was expecting her to say a lot more but her singing voice made up for her lack of talking. Should I even mention Pras,lol! He did perform 'ghettosuperstar' and I love that song but he spent the whole night with a hood on his head and stayed in the background.

The concert seemed to end abruptly as the Fugees were told they needed to come off stage but at least Lauryn came back and tried to make amends. I can't wait till the fugees drop their new album and hopefully next year they will do some more concerts and I will enjoy it a bit more.

[StevieE]

I went to the gig, been lookin forward for ages and tho it was good, i was disappointed. Pras looked like he couldnt be assed and it took a while for lauren to get going. It seemed like they had an argument or something before the gig! The sound quality was crap, the gig seemed unorganised like they hadnt practised! The songs were good but i just didnt feel it if u know what i mean. i hope they come back and play Manchester Apollo instead with all standing on the bottom floor cos this seating lark is poor. wyclef is a star tho!

[Jon]

It did feel like they might have had an argument i thought, cos when Pras & Lauryn came on stage, Clef said (directly to them) "that aint Fugee energy" but then throughout the show they all seemed to interact ok with each other.

Somethin else i remembered before was that at one point a girl in the crowd called out "do the Sweetest Thing" to Lauryn and Lauryn laughed & said back in an English accent "Sweetest Thing?? Y'all remember them ones huh?" Her accent was a typical American-Pretendin-To-Be-English & even tho girl was from Manchester, L's impression sounded Cockney (London) - it was cute tho!

BTW, she just brushed over it and didnt play the song!!

j