Blackstreet and Guy @ Hammersmith Palais, London

By Sophia Jackson

Tuesday 4 October, 2005

Teddy Riley, Blackstreet’s founder and fellow members, Chauncey Hannibal, Mark Middleton and Eric Williams made a dramatic appearance on stage as they tantalised the audience behind a shadowed backdrop.    

A half-vacant Hammersmith Apollo contained loyal Blackstreet fans, who had forked out to see a group who have been absent from our radio waves for a few years now. The support act, Choong Family, performed ‘Fallback’ and their latest track ‘Memory Lane’ to a slightly baffled audience, as the mainly late-twenties to thirty-something Blackstreet fans were of a different generation to the Channel U favourites Choong Family. Nevertheless, they gave a lively performance worthy of a few head-nods and they may even have picked up a few more supporters.   

Then it was time for the main show. Dressed in an ensemble of black caps, black trousers and black shirts the quadruple came bouncing on to the stage to the first of five tracks from their second album, ‘Another Level’.  ‘This Is How We Roll’ was a great way of getting the crowd into Blackstreet mode. Their second offering was ‘If You Need A Fix’.   

Having successfully woken the crowd with the first two upbeat tracks, Blackstreet swiftly slowed it down with ‘Never Gonna Let You Go Away’. With perfect harmonies and a perfected bouncy, two-step routine, the foursome prepared the loved-up crowd for some post-concert bedroom activity. Blackstreet crooned their way through the sentimental love song, slowly unbuttoning their shirts with every verse.  Eventually they revealed six-pack stomachs and moving pecks, proving to the crowd that they might be older but they still had it going on. 

Teddy Riley provided the keys as well as the vocals for the classic ‘Don't Leave’, which was followed by ‘Joy’. Although they are no longer making sweet music, it's timeless love songs like this that serve as a reminder as to why Blackstreet will always have a special place in our hearts and memory banks.   

Next up was the platinum-selling ‘Before I Let You Go’, from their self-titled debut released in 1994. Each ballad was an opportunity for the many couples in the house to snuggle up that little bit closer to one another.  

The performance was so intimate it was as if Blackstreet were performing a personal concert for each of the couples there. I can't tell you the amount of partners I saw lovingly looking into each other's eyes as they sang an impromptu version of ‘Before…’ to their other halves. It was clear that romance was still alive and a welcome guest at Blackstreet's London concert.   

Before the audience got too caught up in the moment, Blackstreet upped the tempo with the Nineties’ dancefloor anthem ‘No Diggity’, from their sophomore album. Everyone started doing a jig to the left and a jig to the right as this infectious track was performed with so much gusto you couldn't just stand still.   

This was the last song they performed before the crowd thought they were going to see a reunion from Guy.  I say ‘thought’ because at no point was the audience informed that the Guy reunion was in fact just Teddy Riley. 

Not only did the audience smell a rat but they also wanted to throw giant rats in protest onto the stage. To say the crowd was not best pleased is an understatement when they realised they'd been duped into thinking that Aaron Hall and Damion Hall were going to join Teddy Riley on stage to perform some classic Guy tracks. By this I mean tracks that are made for a group, not a one-man band, namely Teddy Riley. Although the pint-sized looker tried his best to compensate for the missing siblings, it was a pointless effort. 

A UK concert crowd is not easy to please, so it was hard to hear what he had to offer over chants of “We want Guy” and more importantly, “Where is Guy?” To this Mr Riley, now dressed in an angelic, white suit as if to appear innocent in the whole missing Guy debacle, replied, “Damion and Aaron are sorry they couldn't be here tonight, but there were problems with their passports.” This revelation only incensed the crowd more.  

However, Riley had a few tricks up his sleeve as he called on the crowd to come to his rescue. He first took the crowd back into time as he reminisced that the first time he came to London was in 1984; since then, Blackstreet was formed and to date, they have sold 9 million albums. He then made a plea for two people from the audience to come and fill the Hall brothers' shoes. This mini-sermon was an introduction to what quickly became a cringe-worthy night, which could only described as a disgruntled audience with Teddy Riley.   

It started off well with a few New Jack Swing renditions from Mr Riley, the originator of New Jack Swing. He covered Michael Jackson, Keith Sweat and Bobby Brown; tracks from artists which Riley has worked with during his career as both a producer and singer. 

The solo performance was still going well with Riley doing all sorts of tricks like moon-walking and body-popping but it slowly went downhill as the night turned into the demise of Teddy Riley and seemed increasingly like the 291 show.   

Riley started chucking random questions at the audience, who by now were staring back at Riley with folded arms and stony faces. This was not a time for name that tune. It was a time to bring on Guy. That was one request even the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Riley could not deliver.  Blackstreet should have quit whilst they were still in our good books.  

Although it seemed a worthy gesture, there was something fishy about the two audience members who had been plucked from the crowd to fill Aaron and Damion Halls’ spaces. It was miraculous how they knew all the words to the chosen Guy songs and sung like professionals too… 

The concert went on for an hour too long and to leave the audience on a Blackstreet high they should have at least performed ‘Booti-Call’ or ‘U Blow My Mind’. Instead, the majority of the audience who wanted to somehow get their money’s worth left with a bitter after-taste having stayed to the bitter, bitter end.

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