Cliff Richard at the Eventim Apollo

Cliff Richard opened his 2023 Blue Sapphire Tour on Monday 6th November. He sang a fantastic set list of his biggest hits and favourite songs from the long career which he has had. In that career, there have been highlights and low-lights, and Cliff spoke about some of them.

During the concert, he invited his longtime friend, Sir Tim Rice onto the stage. Chairs were brought out, and the two sat down to talk about Cliff's career, the inspiration behind his songs and his favourites among them. The two have been friends for about fifty years, according to them. Tim Rice is, of course, best known for being the other half of the partnership behind such hit West-End Musicals as 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat'. It is obvious that these little sitdowns were done for Cliff to have the chance to take a break, but following the release of his autobiography, 'The Dreamer' in 2020, I found that the chats were quite interesting. Indeed, most of what Cliff was saying had not been written about in his book in depth, if at all, and so hearing something else was definitely interesting. Both times, however, the lights failed and the stage was plunged into an intense darkness. This did not seem planned either time: neither Sir Cliff or Sir Tim were expecting it, with jokes made on the two occasions.

There was an interval halfway through the concert, and this was to allow for an outfit change - from black trousers and shirt with a gold blazer to a blue sequined tux. I also assume that this was to give the Octagenarian performer a break. I could forgive this - I needed a smoke break, afterall!

I found the layout of the setlist pretty good. Cliff started with his best knowns in the first half of the performance; Living Doll (1959), The Young Ones (1962), and Summer Holiday (1963) among them. He then did some of his songs which I was not as familiar with, but my absolute favourite had to be Move It! (1959).

Move It! is a song that is played fairly often at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, where I work, so I was familiar with it. I danced along and knew every word. It was such an upbeat song, and the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it just as much as I did.

The second half of the set was much more subdued, I thought. It catered more to Cliff's personal favourites of his career rather than the commercial ones. He sang Saviour Day (1990) and My Kinda Life (1977). Again, there was a chat between Cliff and his old friend, Sir Tim.

Overall, the whole evening was hugely enjoyable and I definitely would want to see Sir Cliff Richard live again!