Peter Kay, Utilita Arena, Birmingham, review: Kay’s rare common touch shines through - but he needs more gags up his sleeve
Peter Kay – PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Peter Kay was set to enter British entertainment’s annals last month as “the first artist in the world” to perform at Manchester’s £365m mega-venue Co-op Live, which will have a capacity of 23,500, a record for a UK indoor arena.
But that prospective feather in the cap of the Bolton comic who eats arenas for breakfast was lost to the botched launch of what wags have called the ‘Co-Flop’. His gig on St George’s Day got shunted to Monday, but his dates were then rescheduled again; in theory the venue will be ready to receive him on May 23.
No laughing matter for fans, and those in charge of the gargantuan project, but for Kay, bouncing back to Birmingham for his first stage appearance since the debacle, there was at least an opportunity to bring a smile to people’s faces about this very British bungle.
An opportunity seized? Well, not exactly with both hands. No mention of Keith Lard, for instance, that officious fire safety officer from his name-making TV series Phoenix Nights. Instead, a few snide asides – “at least they don’t say Co-op Live,” Kay joshed, indicating some balloons branded with the Utilita logo. There was a jibe during a riff about seeing Eric Clapton at Manchester’s existing main arena (“Co-op Live weren’t open then..”, a knowing look) and, later, with a sigh of “what a week!”, a nod to Barry Manilow being the latest act to move venues.
Kay, 50, has known his own frustrations when it comes to false-starts. This tour, so in demand it’s running to the end of next year, having commenced in December 2022 – got postponed in 2017, owing to “unforeseen family circumstances”, resulting in rounds of speculation about his health. When he did finally meet his people, there were tears in his eyes.
Perhaps when he does brave the new space, he will have more gags up his sleeve. But even when Kay under-delivers it doesn’t seem to matter much. His appeal lies in saying things as he finds them, his identification badge that he doesn’t try too hard to stand out from the crowd. In general, he excels at feigning indignation but his laidback geniality is also a key attribute.
The show, not his strongest, but a reminder of his rare common touch – remains much the same as when it first materialised. He does a fairly risky opening segment that relies a lot on recognition as well as good-hearted call and response from the audience, who are invited to join in as he rewinds to the analogue era of his early happy youth, and sings 70s and 80s TV ad jingles.
It’s mindless stuff, but equally, he’s a conviction comedian – the fact that he holds as treasure what some might dismiss as tat has its own winning rationale – he’s the self-appointed curator of a vanished mainstream world. Does even Alan Bennett get quite so fussed about mundane minutiae? The affection he stirs for his late ‘nan’, too, affirms his unfashionable appreciation for ordinary (and yet somehow not) family life, and our brief span.
Besides a droll misheard pop-lyrics section, the high-points are the most excruciating – reliving the time he got Clapton to sign a woefully cheap guitar as a favour to a friend (fellow comic Jason Manford), and giving us the gory details of a kidney stone procedure.
The audience are sworn to keep mum about the grand finale, involving beloved TV theme tunes, pyrotechnics and a bonkers aerial coup de theatre. Given the reports of dodgy electrics and a falling air-con unit at Co-op Live, perhaps it’s no bad thing that others will now road-test the place first.
Tours to Dec 2025. Ticket info: peterkay.co.uk
Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles – and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword.