Unity Arena – Bootleg Beatles & Bjorn Again Review

Bootleg Beatles & Bjorn Again at the Virgin Money Unity Arena

Yesterday I popped along to the well publicised Virgin Money Unity Arena at Gosforth racecourse for an afternoon of classic music from these Beatles and ABBA cover bands. 

This venue had made the news worldwide with it being the first socially distanced live music event provider. It kicked off with none other than two gigs from the North’s homegrown superstar Sam Fender, followed up with two door cinema club. The pictures looked amazing and the feedback about the event fantastic. 

With about half the capacity in attendance these bands still had a decent turnout for a cloudy Sunday afternoon. Families and groups of friends adorned their pods. Relaxed and chilled. Staff on site ensuring social distancing was adhered to and masks worn when necessary. 

Bjorn Again came onto the stage first and for the crowd going with the classics that we all know and love from ABBA. Wether you’ve seen the musical or the film or just been alive, it’s hard not to know these songs. About midway through they changed the tempo and gave us a non ABBA rock song in ‘Jump’ which like all the previous songs had the crowd dancing along in their allocated areas. It was good to see when you looked across separate pods, everyone dancing in sync to songs too. 

The Bootleg Beatles were the main reason for my attendance here today and didn’t disappoint. I’m too young to have grown up in the era of the Beatles or to have seen them live, but you can’t deny their music. Like ABBA it’s a bit hard not to know their songs and again had everyone singing along. In the words of John Lennon “For those of you in the cheap seats, I’d like ya to clap your hands to this one; the rest of you can just rattle your jewellery! And so we did! 

This afternoon was a great family day out, enjoyable, relaxed, well organised and good music.

I’m impressed by the venue and what they have done to make this happen. There’s plenty more to look forward to here wether it be family orientated in Dinosuar World Live or comedy in Jason Manford, Bill Bailey or Jimmy Carr. The Libertines are my next big pick and can’t wait to get back here for that.

For more information on upcoming events at the Virgin Money Unity Arena please click here

Thanks for reading,

Aaron 

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