May 27, 2008

Birmingham has not seen its like for nearly 30 years. But yesterday Osmond-mania returned to the city with thousands of young-at-heart women re-living their past. Among them was self-confessed Osmonds nut Lindsey Campton

THROUGH the dry ice that surrounded the stage, the now very familiar first bars of Crazy Horses rang out, and suddenly there they were – suited, booted and ready to rock – and the fans went wild! With a combined age of 365 years, with more than 50 years in show business, the greatest musical family of all time hit the stage running at the NIA.

The six brothers, Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Donny, and Jimmy, and their sister Marie, had arrived and in a few seconds had taken us all back to the heady days of the '70's - rock and roll was back.

The Osmonds took the stage by storm. Long gone is the boy band. This was a true rock and roll band, with Merrill once more taking the lead and looking every inch the true sexy rock star he is.

Following on with Back on the Road Again the huge screens behind the stage took us back to 1975 when they first appeared at Earls Court, showing long forgotten footage of those concerts and screaming fans - some things never change.

All the classics were there, Let Me In, The Proud One and when they asked "What are you doing tonight?" from Down by the Lazy River, the fans answered back in one voice, and the Osmonds loved it!

Sister Marie, who has very rarely appeared with her brothers, took to the stage with her very own style of country music.

After being joined back on stage by all her brothers, the Osmonds joined together to sing their theme song, He ain't Heavy He's my Brother, which they dedicated to their two older brothers, Virl and Tom, who were both born with hearing difficulties - there was not a dry eye in the house.

The second half began with We're having a Party, with fireworks and streamers being blasted over the crowds. Later, Donny couldn't resist singing Puppy Love and he certainly got the reaction he was looking for - the fans loved it.

They finished the show with the classic Love me for A Reason and the crowd lifted the roof once more – the standing ovation that lasted for what seemed like hours said it all.

Earlier in the day we had joined the throngs of fans outside the HMV store where Jimmy and Jay were signing copies of their 50th Anniversary special DVD. Apparently HMV had expected around 300 fans, they were more than a little surprised when nearly 1,000 turned up. I spoke with fans that had travelled from Tenerife, France and even New Zealand to see the boys on this Tour.

(Original article can be found at: http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2008/05/27/the-osmonds-return-to-brum-97319-20978651/