LUKE MARSDEN: Wonderful to see Peter Kay back on stage

Like millions of us, I scrambled to get Peter Kay tickets the moment he announced he was doing his first tour in over a decade. I thought that being an O2 customer I’d benefit from the pre-sale option, but that was more of a joke than the political landscape was in 2022.

At the last minute and for the equivalent of two days’ worth of heating my house at the going rate, I managed to nab my friends and myself some tickets to see him live in Liverpool.

The year 2023 has arrived and last week the date was upon me finally to watch Peter Kay perform at the M&S Bank Arena (which, if you haven’t been, is a great location near the Albert Docks) although I’m sure visiting it in July would be better than a freezing cold night in January during a train strike.

Peter made his way on stage looking visibly much thinner than the bloke most of us remember from his shows.

He could probably make more money from a weight loss endorsement than his tour, although for the circa £60 a ticket we paid for our seats I thought I’d be able to watch the show without mainly watching it on the arena screens. This is a spoiler-free review: I probably should’ve pointed that out at the start.

I’m not going to wreck his gags but I will give you the same warning I was given by a friend who saw him last month: he only properly gets going in the second half. Oh, and you need to stay until the very end. If you really did want to find out the ending you could probably find a random clip on Facebook.

Peter could’ve just come out and repeated his garlic bread joke over and over and would’ve still got a standing ovation. He is back and I’m glad I’ve seen him but if I was somebody who has tickets to see him in 2025 I’d probably just flog ‘em. Peter would probably respect that.