Inspire – to make someone feel that they want to do something and can do it: to make someone have a particular strong feeling or reaction: to fill someone with confidence and desire to do something and – to listen to Oliver Tourle perform his truly heartfelt, incredibly emotional and wonderfully uplifting, one-man show.
Each year, local singer Oliver Tourle funds, produces and performs his one-man show. Year after year the quality of his performance gets better, the variety of song choices gets wider and his loyal band of followers, fans and family watch as this shy young man steps out on stage to perform, getting stronger and more confident in his ability as each year passes.
Backed by a five piece band and two backing singers, Oliver starts the first half with a medley of Adele’s greatest hits, hotly followed by a second medley, this time picking the best of the best from Ed Sheeran’s back catalogue. In between the musical numbers Oliver shares some warts-and-all stories from his childhood. He tells of the sensitive and emotional little boy who had a dream – as he stands there, a sensitive and emotional grown-up who is now living that dream.
James Arthur’s Say You Won’t Let Go and Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror are introduced with some very funny stories of Oliver and his (long-suffering) girlfriend Hannah and then followed, in a spine twisting genre change by a selection of some of Walt Disney’s best known ballads and topped off with the first half finale, Bill Wither’s 1972 number one hit Lean on Me.
Musical Director Emma Jackson on keyboards, San Dunstall and Mark Willment on guitars, Billy Cunningham on drums and Lily Beatrice Cooper on cello, together with Betsy Lee-Miller and Brooke Wells as backing singers, give Oliver’s concert a full and rich sound that fills the auditorium well, with Oliver’s powerful and passionate vocals easily riding the wave of sound.
As a picture of Oliver as a toddler is beamed onto the backdrop, a medley of Streisand’s The Way We Were mashed with Midler’s The Rose has many in the audience in reflective mood only to be dragged back into lighter times with Queen’s Crazy Little Thing Called Love, and then taken to the height of a breathtakingly emotional crescendo with Oliver’s tribute to those who are no longer with us, Somewhere Over The Rainbow.
As if that is not enough, before the concert ends the intensity continues with Whitney’s One Moment in Time, There Are Places I Remember by The Beatles and, because there is always room for a “Showtune”, This Is Me from The Greatest Showman before a rousing version of Somebody to Love by Queen for his finale.
As well as laughing along with Oliver’s self-deprecating humour, what makes his concerts so outstanding is that he doesn’t just use his wonderful voice to entertain his audience. Oliver sings with his huge heart wide open bringing himself, and many in his very enthusiastic audience, to the brink of tears, over and over again.
***** Five Stars