The next day was our own, so we could leisurely make our way to Birmingham. Unannouned though, the tickets for Marti’s Teenage Cancer Trust charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall had gone on sale so I spent most of the journey on the phone to my sister, yes that dreaded mobile, to help get them for me.

On the Saturday we had an enjoyable day cutting about Birmingham and Denise came down in the overnight bus from Glasgow to join us for the gig.

On arriving at the venue that evening I was rather worried when the security were questioning and searching for cameras, I thought why did I bother coming south of the border ? But anyhow, to my amazement my camera got in ok, phew that was a relief.

We were meant to be 14^th row in the middle that night but on acquiring some extra 2^nd row seats for the right hand block I invited Wil to join me.

A very ‘up for it’ crowd at Birmingham were on their feet the instant the lights went out and everyone went mad for the first 2 Wets songs, Sweet Little Mystery and Wishing I Was Lucky, reliving their youth.

The first of Marti’s songs off the smile album, All I Ever Wanted sent a shuddery echo round the NEC which soon lifted and was a good lead into Did You Ever Wake Up. I absolutely love the strength of Marti’s vocals on this track, you can feel the energy being released. It's not a fast track but you wouldn't call it slow either, just hangs nicely between the two extremes.

Marti impressed himself giving the crowd a one liner that there couldn’t be a nice looking woman left in Birmingham this Saturday night because they were all in here with him tonight.

A fierce eyed Marti looked somewhat fired up for London Life as if really getting into the spirit of the song and using the microphone on its stand very expressively in a stirring movement towards the crowd. The cars in The Strand are bumper to bumper’ ??, so much for attempting to sing along, little surprises round every corner ;-), must admit it’s a suitable minor modification.

East of the River was up next. Wow what a version, just when I thought this song couldn’t get any better. With this even livelier version he was able to make the song his own, as he successfully achieved with all of his new arrangements of the Wets songs on the tour. It wasn’t like they were drastically different or anything like that but merely rejigged a little with a different emphasis placed at certain parts of the songs either musical and / or vocally.

My Love then gave the audience time to listen and ponder over Marti’s latest masterpiece, it has a very calming effect.

To everyone’s surprise and the shock of a select lucky few just left of centre at the front Marti came over to the edge of the stage and sat down as he began the beautiful Fire and Rain. Marti is so at ease singing this song and tonight’s performance just showed how he was growing in confidence with it. Now why couldn’t he have done this in Glasgow !

The unmistakable backing track to Goodnight Girl needed no introduction which was appropriately followed by a top notch Joe Cocker style rendering of With A Little Help From My Friends, since we’d helped Marti, on his request, to finish Goodnight Girl which he was very grateful for.

It's a shame such an exceptional song as Close To You has to be spoiled by the thoughtless action of a handful of fans wolf whistling, screaming or shouting out before Marti has the chance to finish it fully. I thought after the last tour's disaster in the Royal Albert Hall fans would have been courteous enough to allow Marti to close the song as he wished but instead virtually every night he had a frown or stern look on his face, it was such a shame.

New York Vibe began with some rather raunchy antics from Marti getting the crowd going, leaving us grooving for the remainder of the song.

I am pleased he did the extended version of This Moment is OK with the additional verse on tour, the same as how he’d played it when I first heard it at Putney and on the late night live session on Radio 2. The Missing Sound was a great follow up with its easygoing dancey tempo.

In jest Marti revised one line in the lyrics of Lip Service to ‘with Carling Black Label’ instead of ‘girl, ready and able’. I Can Give You Everything was as catchy as ever with its even more unique new funky beat. It was one thing getting into the song but trying to sing it was a different matter ha ha.

Marti jokingly started singing ‘I feel it in my fingers’ with his idea of an east of Scotland accent which reminded him of a guy from Edinburgh who used to do his ‘gairden’ (glaswegian for garden) back home in Scotland that he’d once caught singing the song. As with previous nights Marti then goes off stage early during Love Is All Around leaving the band to play it out till the end when they too go off and join him.

With such a wonderful instrumental backing to I’ve Been Around The World the 'live' feel of this song is almost pulled off in the studio. It is so hard to catch a true live performance on a recording but hearing it really live just shows it at its complete and utter best. Yes you can tell straight away that Marti has written this all by himself, the lyrics are very close to his heart, packed with so much feeling and emotion - it's 'his' story. Once finished Marti was intent on hearing us sing again, acoustically without the band.

Temptation topped the evening off to a tee and the crowd proved that the gig had been a rip roaring success.

‘Thank you very much for looking after us Birmingham, it was a pleasure and it was all mine.’ and the whole band take their bow then Marti ends the evening with ‘Safe journey home, god bless, love to love’.

A few of the fans had met up in the bar prior to the gig but the main meeting was out in the foyer afterwards, yeah I’m sure you’ve all seen those infamous fan pics on Monique’s site:

http://mp.8m.com/smiletour/

Before we went back to our hotel some of us decided to check things out round the back where we found another gathering of fans hanging around for Marti’s iminent departure. Some were a bit too outgoing for my liking, bursting into song, firstly with I've Been Around The World, then Jingle Bells. I must admit I was cringing at this point while trying not to get squashed, and thinking, there's no hope of him coming out now.

Thankfully I was proved wrong just a few minutes later when out popped Marti to say hello and to sign autographs for a handful of the fans who were waiting. Understandably with there being over 40 fans it was impossible for him to speak to everyone but it was nice he made the effort and didn’t just shoot off.

When he came out the crowd was so manic it was impossible to try to take a picture, especially me at my height, all I ended up with was hands and some big security guy’s head. Thankfully though with Cindy being much taller then me she had better luck with her camera. Great picture, thanks Cindy. :-)

It's just a bit unfortunate the next day when you happen to find something on the internet being sold with his autograph 'as signed after Birmingham concert last night' - that's not fair ! It's a shame, as stuff like this ruins it for others. Obviously an autograph hunter out for a quick kill, cashing in on it and at the same time stopping more deserved fans from a possible once in a life time meeting with Marti.

As we returned to our hotel we realised that by pure chance Riverway were also staying there. I walked in the door just as the guitarist walked across to sit down and I thought ‘I recognise him’, and put two and two together immediately. They were lovely guys and hopefully didn't mind us interrupting them, they were very hospitable and chatty. Thanks guys, we wish you all the best.

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