SSE Hydro, GlasgowClassic FM’s answer to Ant and Dec take their grandiose revue on a tour of the UK’s arenas, belting out broadway showstoppers and stirring pop ballads
Michael Ball and Alfie Boe’s business is booming. The stage veterans, who first met in 2007 during an unloved ENO production of Kismet, know a thing or two about projecting a stirring melody so it rattles the back row, thanks to Ball’s storied career in West End musicals and Boe’s in opera and pop-classical. But at a time when the ubiquity of streaming has kneecapped album sales, the duo have managed to buck a spiralling trend.
Their first collaborative album of show tunes and standards, Together, cornered the 2016
Christmas market and became the biggest-selling album released that year. Their dulcet bromance has since become a cottage industry, with stocking-ready CDs released almost every fourth quarter, celebratory ITV specials, and large-scale arena shows. This latest live tour, in support of their recent third album Back Together, will culminate at the O2 in
London next month.