It’s fair to say that tickets for Harry Styles’ ‘One Night Only’ show at Co-op Live were like gold dust.
Approximately 670,000 people requested tickets for the 23,500-capacity gig, meaning that around 96.5% were unsuccessful.
As one of the fortunate 3.5% to secure a spot at the show, it’s a shame that I can’t just reflect on a brilliant performance by an artist who I’m convinced will headline next year’s Glastonbury.
Through no fault of Harry’s own, some aspects of the evening left a bit of a sour taste.
Earlier this week, I received an email saying that the use of cameras (including phones) would be banned during the performance, due to it being filmed for Netflix, with phones set to be sealed in ‘Turngate Smartbag Pouches’ that cover the front and back cameras. I saw this as a big positive as I think the chance to fully immerse myself in a gig, without seeing a sea of phone screens is such a rare opportunity these days.
The email also stated that “each pair of tickets sold will receive a disposable camera on the night so you can still capture your own special moments and share them after the show.” Again, a very good idea, in my opinion.
However, upon arriving at Co-op Live, we learned that both these phone pouches and the disposable cameras had run out. Instead, members of venue staff placed stickers over the front and rear camera lenses. The way they ripped the sticker to place it over my rear camera meant that the flash and light detection sensor were partially visible but the camera was still completely ineffective (we’ll come back to this point later).
With no camera and this review planned, it was also a shame that there were no disposable cameras left, despite the initial email stating that each pair of ticketholders would receive one. With both this and the pouches, I don’t understand how you can run out when you know exactly how many tickets you’ve sold but we’ll move on.
After swerving the ridiculous merch queue, we got to the standing area and found out we were meant to have picked up a wristband from someone upon arriving. The member of staff who we approached to get a wristband after this honest mistake was needlessly difficult and rude and suggested that we were lucky that he was even giving us a wristband after we missed him on the way in.
Now, I don’t happen to be diagnosed with any neurodivergent conditions but believe me when I say that there was A LOT going on between the ticket scanners and the standing entrance, so I can only imagine how overwhelming it could have been for some people, and chastising anyone in that way, regardless of circumstance, just isn’t cool.
Once inside the arena, the first thing I spotted was that the stage was in the middle of the floor – to fully make use of Co-op’s live capacity. Above it were huge screens, featuring a clock, with all the numbers except 9 replaced with the word ‘kiss’, while 9 itself was ‘disco’ as a nod to Harry’s new album ‘Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally’, which was released on the morning of the show.
It also worked as a countdown to the gig’s 9pm (or Disco o’clock) start time. When the clock struck nine, Bridge Over Troubled Water was replaced with deafening screams from the crowd as Harry’s band started to emerge, eventually followed by the man himself.
Wearing yellow trousers and a blue jumper, he did a brilliant job building the suspense. Instead of heading for the thin beam of light and the microphone in the centre of the stage, he first headed for the synth to help build the atmospheric intro of opener ‘Aperture’.
The song divided opinion somewhat upon release but when it finally kicked in here, you could feel the electricity in the crowd and when the House Gospel Choir joined in, it was goosebump-worthy.
I’d made the conscious decision to not listen to the new album ahead of the show and that, along with the lack of phones, made it a really immersive experience.
After the second song and new single ‘American Girls’, Harry took time to speak to the crowd with “Good evening, Manchester” getting a particularly raucous scream. He thanked everyone for coming and reminded us it was being filmed, “even if you don’t know the songs yet, try to have fun because you may end up on Netflix,” he joked.
Harry Styles has been performing to huge crowds for half of his life now and watching him move around the stage is incredibly captivating.
To me, this iteration of him feels like his most authentic self and he looked like he was having a blast, with more bass-heavy tracks and fewer vocals allowing him to bust out some very interesting dance moves; it was during one of these dance breaks that Mrs Molloy observed that he could probably release the worst album of all time and as long as he gyrates on stage while performing it, his fans would lap it up.
Fortunately, we had no such issues here as I actually think the album sounded really good. I caught Lorde’s secret set at last year’s Glastonbury when she performed ‘Virgin’ front-to-back on the morning of its release and I was really bored but despite only knowing one of the songs here, it kept my complete attention throughout.
I was taken out of the gig at one moment in particular, during the tender ‘Coming Up Roses’ when some members of security staff asked to inspect some people’s phones (including mine). Upon seeing the stickers over the camera, they left me alone but a person next to me was asked to show his camera roll before they put his bag in a pouch (which they’d miraculously found more of).
The fact that they’d already seen my phone and deemed it to be fine made it even more annoying when, towards the end of the show, two members of security asked to see my phone again and then escorted me out of the standing area, without explanation, before telling me that the sticker on my rear camera was ripped.
As we’ve established, the lenses were still totally covered and the only bits partially exposed were the flash and light detection sensor, meaning that even if I was to open my camera, all you’d be able to see is a grey screen. Even after showing them my camera roll and explaining this to them, they still gave me a bit of a lecture and were just really condescending. A third member of security staff inserted himself into the conversation, which seemed like complete overkill and just a general lack of common sense from all involved.
Thankfully, I made it back in just in time for the encore, which started with a very surprise performance of debut album closer ‘From the Dining Table’, before moving through some of his biggest hits – ‘Golden’, ‘Watermelon Sugar’ and the brilliant ‘As It Was’, which is probably one of my favourite pop songs of the past five years.
He ended on debut solo single ‘Sign of the Times’ to really show off his impressive vocal range, before coming back on stage for a joyous reprise of ‘Aperture’.
It wasn’t totally perfect; some of the vocal effects were a bit sharp sometimes, although I’m sure this will be fixed in post-production before the show appears on Netflix on Sunday evening. But it did feel like an artist, who is now a 16-year veteran despite being only 32, at the peak of his powers and completely at ease with himself.
Harry Styles: One Night Only will premiere on Netflix on Sunday 8th March at 7pm GMT.
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