I went to see Go West and Paul Young at the Dagenham Town Show in Essex on Sunday, and after an excellent performance by Go West, waited for Paul to come on and blow everyone away with his amazing voice. Having waited for about 35 minutes, people were becoming a bit restless, but shortly after he appeared on stage, and started with Love of the common people. As soon as his vocals begain, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He sounded NOTHING like the Paul Young I remember, in fact I would go so far as to say that a PY impersonator would have done a much better job! Now, having heard Peter Cox belt out classics like 'We close our eyes' and 'Call me' I was begging for Go West to come back on, as they can still cut it nearly twenty years on, but I'm afraid I cannot say the same for Mr Young, which is a real shame, as I've been a fan since '83. Lots of people left in disgust during this first number, and I was one of them. Not just because of the quality of his singing, but the mood of the crowd was beginning to turn ugly, and I had my wife and nine year old sons safety to consider. On the drive home a couple of police cars sped past us on the way to the venue it seemed, so I'm glad I left when we did. I sure would like to know if any members of this forum were present to see his performance, and would be interested to hear what they had to say about it.

I was at Dagenham yesterday and was totally shocked by what I heard. I hope that his fee was held back. He was absolutely CRAP!!! He couldnt hold a tune in a bucket. How he had the audacity to even try and pretend that he could still sing, let alone follow Go West with the superb Peter Cox, is totally beyond me. A policeman told me he was thinking of arresting him for being in possesion of an offensive voice! Useless.

I fully agree with your comments Dave. I would have expected more from Young than what we were subjected to at Dagenham, although reading another post on this forum from someone who saw him in Devon, it doesn't seem an isolated incident to have him perform in what can only be described as a 'e' manner! It's a shame that the man has totally lost the ability to sing with the talent he once possessed. But, it's also an equal shame he feels the need to embarrass himself and his fans, in his need to carry on performing. Surely his band can hear how crap he now is? Why don't they say to him 'Look Paul, enough is enough mate, retire before it's too late' Oh well, I'm not about to burn all my Paul Young records, as I guess they will become collector's items rather quickly, but at least I know who not to bother seeing live now! Cheers for sharing your opinions Dave, it was nice to find out that at least one other person didn't have their hearing damaged by Paul 'I can no longer sing to save my life' Young. But I'm sure some weren't so lucky. Long live Go West! (p.s. to the VIP badge holders that were present on Sunday, a little tip, you don't have to hold the pass out at arms length all the bleedin' time! Some of you acted like a bunch of dicks)