T.G.T live at the London Hammersmith Apollo (Review)

Two days ago my cousin Marvin suggested we go to see T.G.T. (They were performing on the west side of London the following day). Don't get me wrong, I think T.G.T are great and are standing up for that authentic R&B, but my immediate response was rather lukewarm.

I mean, get serious. I'm pretty sure if Tank, Ginuwine and Tyrese had their way this would of been a 'ladies only' affair. As much as I appreciate all their music combined and individually, I couldn't really picture myself standing in a crowd screaming like a girl at three R&B blokes.

However, in the spirit of spontaneity I agreed to go. The opportunity to turn a dreary Thursday 'school night' into a night out in the city came and I grabbed it. After a grueling day at work, I spun around in the work toilets and emerged in a grey BBC/Icecream crew neck, stone wash denim jeans and a pair of Safari Airmax 1's.

I hopped on the London underground and zig zagged my way across the city to meet up with Marvin in a pub on Edgware road. He was buying the drinks, but I was only drinking water. (I haven't had a drink since mid December 2013. Just another one of my spontaneous and random decisions).

Anyway, after a brief catch up we left the pub and hopped back on the underground to trundle along a couple of stops down to Hammersmith. We were greeted with a series of long snake like queues of dolled up women of all nations and all ages. All shapes and all sizes. Watching them all was quite fascinating really. Some were shoe horned into dresses that were four sizes too small, others in gym clothes. Yes, one woman in front of us literally had just come out of the gym.

Finally inside, we headed to the bar. I fuelled up on more water, Marvin on more Jack. Then we made our way into the main arena. Music bumping, and all the early birders staking their claim as close to the stage as possible. I had no need to see sweating male torsos that close, so we chilled out mid centre. The Dj was playing a medley of cheesy safe 90's hits. After this mediocre DJ and his mildly amusing hypeman finally conceeded defeat and departed the lights when low.

The live band banged out a musical fanfare that fizzed out of the speakers and filled the room. The air became electric. Three figures strolled out sauve and sophisticated and instantly commanded attention. Decked out in their album cover tuxes and aviators, all three broke out into song.

These guys were good. They were really good. They belted out vocals seamlessly without even breaking a sweat. They opened with songs on their brilliant album, Three Kings. The crowd were loving it. They were loving it. Everyone was loving it.

After a while Tank kicked the other two off stage and went into solo mode. I've been following Tank from when he was knocking about with Blackground Music and Timbaland. I bought his first album on CD when it was released back in 2001.  Unfortunately, in my opinion Tank never quite recieved the mainstream recognition that he deserves. This meant that he had limited songs to play during his solo set.

Five solo albums under his belt, he sadly had to resort to singing a 10 - 15 minute version of Maybe I deserve along with a few other mildly memorable melodies. To his credit he worked well with what he had and even hopped onto the keyboard to flex his musical prowess. Yup, Tank is the breed of a true musician. His strong point for the night was vocal range. He effortlessly kept breaking into a flawless falsetto that was out of this world. He was the cool one. He was the one that kept talking into the mic with his deep, manly voice that had the ladies in a frenzy. I couldn't help but laugh at the power he weilded over these woman by just talking. You had to give it to him.

After he trotted off, Ginuwine slid out on stage to perform a medley. Personally, I think he was one of the best to ever do it during my generation. A complete entertainer, cut from the finest cloth in R&B. Da Bassment/Devante/Jodeci/Timbaland/Missy/Aaliyah/NeedIsayMore?

Ginuwine was like a kid in a candy shop. He looked so excited to be on stage with fans still screaming for him. He loved every minute of it. He was jumping around like a jack in the box. He was on the speakers, in the crowd, vibing with the guitarist. He was having fun, and it was great to see.

One of my all time favourite songs, So anxious was a highlight. Then he got rid of his heavy expensive jewellery via some slave on the side of the stage and broke out into the legendary Pony dance routine... His strong point was that he was simply in his element, but now older and giving off a 'been there done that' vibe, he didn't take himself too seriously. He handled the fact his best songs and moves are 18 years old. Damn, its really been that long? A true testament to such a solid modern day classic that he released back in 1996 with his old mentor, Timbaland.

Lastly, Tyrese came out to belt out classics like Sweet lady and How you gonna act like that. His strong point for me was that his vocal was ridiculously strong and powerful. His voice in my opinion is the epitome of a god-given talent. You either got it, or you don't. Tyrese definitely got it. He also seemed pretty thankful and humble to be there performing even though, he clearly must have the most money and fame out of the three of them right now... After all this guy does happen to casually pop up in a summer action blockbuster movie year after year.

Eventually, they all reunited back on stage and continued to drive the ladies wild with their antics and vocals. They even treated us to a medley of Jodeci songs, Mary J Blige, Bell Biv Devoe amongst others... This was all because they love that real old skool RnB, just like we do.

Before we knew it, it was all over... The crusaders of real RnB were gone. With broken promises of taking a photo with every single person in the venue lobby afterwards, it was time for the all the excitable women to give up their attempt to marry these men and go home.

As me and my cousin exited the building and spilled out into the street, the news circulated that the photo opportunity was still on the table but for a price of £80 for two desperately sad but rich girls at a time.

As I stood outside whilst people made small talk, I could hear the corns on all of these womens toes around me screaming in pain and agony to be released from their tight shoe imprisonment.

The night was officially done.


Joshua, TCC