Summer XS - Donnington Park 2002!
Saturday 15th June 2002
This summer, GWR held numerous Summer XS events around the East Midlands, featuring some of the UK’s biggest and brightest musical talent over the past 2 years! The line up ranged from Blue and Gareth Gates to the "One and Only", Chesney Hawkes! (remember him?!) Other acts included Mis-Teeq, Aurora, Daniel Beddingfield, Moony, Suga Babes, Liberty X, Darius, 3SL, H and Claire, Lighthouse Family, Rhianna, Reel, Jamie Benson and Rik Waller.
The 5-hour marathon music event kicked off at 2.30pm after the fantastic 3-0 thrashing that England gave Denmark! The 26,000 strong crowd were ready for the first act of the day, Mis-Teeq who performed their chart topping hits, "Be With Me", "All I Want" and their latest release, "Roll On". The main highlights were when Blue took to the stage and sang 4 of their singles, 3 of which went to number 1. "Too Close" went down well as everyone was singing and dancing along, and "Fly By" was also another crowd favourite. Simon gave his all when he started rapping. Using an alternative verse he sounded word and note perfect. Lee sported his new *hair-do* and managed to whip the crowd into a frenzy when he gave his jacket to a girl in the audience who grabbed his attention by screaming and jumping up and down the most! - Lucky girl!!!
Many of the banners and flags were for both Blue and Gareth Gates. However, in tradition of the Pop Idol show, Darius and Rik Waller made their appearances! Darius sang his debut single, "Colour Blind", which may surprise some people because after the "Pop Stars"/ "Pop Idol" shows, Darius has created a new image and a new sound which is a sure fire hit! Following in his footsteps, was Rik. Rik managed to win the respect and cheers from the audience by showing us exactly why he was chosen to be in the final 10 contestants of "Pop Idol".
Gareth of course, was headlining the event and so waited a few minutes before coming out on stage to a rapturous applause and screams! Seeming a little overwhelmed by the welcome, Gareth broke into his number one single "Unchained Melody" and finished the day with his brand new single "Any One Of Us (Stupid Mistake)" which most certainly got the biggest scream/cheers of the day!
In all, the music event was well organised and the crowd loved all the acts performing. Thankfully the weather held up until the end of the show and everyone went home happy to have been at Donnington that day. Lets hope next years show will be just as good, if not better!
Melissa Ng
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