Tuesday, 28 April 2026

Concert Review Alfie Boe Face Myself Tour Philharmonic Hall Liverpool

 


I don’t think I can find enough adjectives to describe Alfie Boe after watching his  fantastic show - talented, versatile, energetic, gregarious, engaging and more. He has an endearing personality, a terrific stage presence and is an absolutely superb showman.

He arrived on stage wearing a casual outfit - black denim jeans, black ankle boots and a blue denim jacket.  From the very start he interacted with his fans in the audience with sincerity at one moment and humour the next, he is a very charming character with a down-to-earth personality which warms the heart.

Boe is promoting his new album, Face Myself on this tour and during the show he shares personal disclosures on his working-class upbringing in Fleetwood, family life (he’s one of 9 children), his career breakthrough and friendship with Michael Ball plus how he plucked up the courage to make this new album which contains original music of his own plus some favourite covers.

He shared his love of Liverpool with the audience, especially his love of Liverpool Football Club and moved those listening with tales of his father’s love of music and his influence on him and how he got involved and grew to love musical theatre from the age of 14.

The show opened with his performance of one of his new songs, ‘Ten Thousand Miles’ which memorialises the distance between him and his children who live in the US, after which he dedicated his next two songs to his dad, sung in Italian and with tongue in cheek asked the audience to sing along. His father’s love of skittle and Lonnie Donegan featured next with ‘The Rock Island Line’, ‘Cumberland Gap’ and ‘Don’t You Rock Me Daddio’.

Boe makes full use of the stage and dances around energetically throughout the show.  He wowed fans with his renditions of some of his father’s country music favourites, ‘You’re My Best Friend’, ‘King Of The Road’ and ‘From A Jack to a King’ which he said his father played when he was feeling amorous towards his mother, hence the 9 children!

He commented on his friendship with Michael Ball and performed a tribute to him along with a reggae version of a song from the musical, Hamilton, ‘You’ll Be Back’. This led up to the song which he said changed his life after performing it at the age of 14, ‘Bring Him Home’.  This produced a standing ovation from the audience and a Noel Gallagher song followed, ‘Trying to Find a World That’s Been and Gone’.

Tina Turner’s hit, ‘Rollin On The River’  was next with a surprise guest, ex Liverpool football player, John Barnes who performed a rap in the middle of the number and then joined Boe for the remainder of the song.

Boe then sang the title track from his album, Face Myself and then rocked it with the band and followed it with Snow Patrol’s ‘Light Up’ featuring a guitar solo from band member Murray. Boe is supported by a six piece band who are all gifted musicians and singers and he plays guitar on most of his songs.

His encore was a medley of country music songs and his finale encore was a rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ sang without musical accompaniment which had many of his fans wiping away a tear from their eyes.

Boe is a multi-talented singer who can sing every and any musical genre superbly, his vocal range is amazing, he is so versatile and entertaining. He also made the effort to deliver a Meet and Greet with the audience at the end of a nearly two hour show in which he was a non-stop ball of energy singing and bouncing about on the stage to the delight of the audience.  His rapport with them is remarkable and he had them in the palm of his hand. 

I can wholeheartedly recommend this show to any music lovers, Boe isn’t  just the tenor who performs hit songs from Les Mis, he is an all round entertainer with a show which caters with something for everyone and you’ll go home loving all the songs he sings - he can sing everything from classical to rock with a star-rated performance.

Boe was supported by special guest, singer/songwriter, Jessica Sweetman, who sang  a number of her original songs plus a Talking Heads cover, accompanied by guitarist Andy Pike, see https://www.jessicasweetman.com/tour

For details of further tour dates see https://alfie-boe.com/2026-tour-dates/

Reviewer – Anne Pritchard

On – 27th April 2026

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