Olly Murs at Festhalle Bern

„Did you miss me?“ – Oh yes, Olly, and how we missed you. I was so looking forward to Olly Murs stopping in Switzerland with his “Never Been Better” Tour. Esp. to finally listen to the song “Up” live.

With seemingly infinite energy he and the band fired up the Bernese and thrilled the audience at Festhalle. Of course both background singers couldn’t be missed. Next to Olly the stars of the Murs concerts. Last visit in Switzerland was of course a bit smaller. Back then he performed at The Showcase at Zurich Plaza. The screaming at Festhalle was a lot louder now – but with it the party also bigger. The Essex guy seemed to enjoy it. It was great fun to see him live again.

Early in the morning we only Munich, so I would be back in Bern in time. I quickly went home to drop my bags – so I was one hour too late though to possibly meet only before the concert. Well, instead I met another acquaintance, who I sure hadn’t expected. The security guy thought though, that there might be a chance to still meet him after 4 pm, but that didn’t happen then. maybe after the concert. So I went inside the location to see the Show first. I was first a bit shocked. For a while it looked like the location would stay quite empty. In the end it wasn’t sold out, but well crowded.

Support Act was German band Berge. Berge are the Berlin songwriter duo Marianne Neumann and Rocco Horn. They play German popsongs and are touring since 12 years together. Wasn’t super thrilled by them. Everything sounded too similar, wasn’t too interesting to listen to them after a while.

Sure this was totally different with Olly. He was running from one to the other end of the stage, shacking his bum, sat at the edge of the stage sending kisses to the fans, was fooling around. The way we know him, with all his charme. One the one hand, they played beautiful ballades, on the other side great uptemop and party songs. Different than expected he started the show with “Heart skips a beat” [video here] Yes, I’ve been studying the setlist ahead and here “Did you miss me?” [video here] came only second. But “Heart skips a beat” is well known here in Switzerland, it was played up and down on the radios. But it was followed by so many more hits of him: „Right place right time“, „Hand on heart“, „Oh my goodness“, „Dance with me tonight“ or of course „Dear Darlin’“ as well as „Troublemaker“. Sure you all know them, latest when you hear them.

Almost two hours of party – dancing, jumping, having fun. Before “Seasons” [video here] he got a mooing toy. He couldn’t get enough of it and let people next to normally sing along even make the mooing and squeaking noises. Something similar he had received back then at Volkshaus. He’s just a big child, is straining the risible muscles of the audience a lot though.

And finally I could listen to “Up” [video here] live. My absolute favourite of him. Unfortunately not with Demi Lovato. Would have been fabulous, if she was support act, no? He sang it with the Berge singer, what was good as well. Was alright. Towards the end of the show a medley of the covers „Play that funky music“, „Le freak“, „Good times“, „Rapper’s delight“ as well as „Uptown funk“ followed his songs, what set the location on fire once more. The fans celebrated Olly again with chantings, before he finished the concert with “Wrapped up”. And yes he definitively has wrapped up the audience and made them being crazy about him.

After the concert I stayed at the tour buses. Except of them being on the way to the train station anyway, I still wanted to give him my chocolate present personally. My concert companion didn’t like it too much. And yes, I could understand her, cos it was pretty crazy. If you think, Olly is already over 30 years old, he got incredibly many teen fans. I believe, the most were under 20, if not even under 18, standing there. Most of them almost screamed off your ears and were about to faint from excitment or getting a heart attack. The area got blocked and several security guys were protecting it. Then it was said: “Olly is coming, but only for one autograph OR photo each person. Olly Murs in BernAs soon as someone is acting up, he’ll be gone.” Understandable. But still there was quite a lot of pushing and the worst of all of them was probably this one mother. Because of her the whole thing almost failed.

But Olly came outside then. Loads of excitment was there of course, but everything was going pretty smooth then. He was super nice and patient. For the presents he was giving kisses, wrote willingly autographs and took the mobile phones to take the selfies by himself. The security guys – or was it the tour manager maybe – did light with their phones so the photos were turning out well at all. It was kind of ground handling of course. Look sharp, one after the other. You can’t really tell that a meeting under such circumstances really is the greatest. That’s why I hoped to meet him ahead of the concert. Usually it’s more relaxed and less people there then. But yeah, I was still glad about the quick meeting, the unexpected peck and the nice photo. Can’t deny. Well, maybe I am lucky next time winning a meet & greet finally. Usually short as well, but more relaxed 😉

I hope for sure, that he at least will be back for a concert soon. Can’t get enough of them. I would love to see him on a Swiss festival stage, but the festival bookers probably see this differently…

Official websites:
Olly Murs

Youtube-Playlist: Olly Murs in Bern

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