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I went to the BBC Radio 2 live in Blackpool wotsit this Saturday.

It was a live show with Pixie Lott, Newton Faulkner, Will Young, Daniel Merriweather, and Mika.

I have to admit that before going, with the exception of Will Young, I had no clue as to who any of these people are. I knew I'd know their music, but I generally have no clue as to who is behind the songs.

On the ticket (which was a freebie given away by the BBC) it said they oversubscribe these things, and that it was a good idea to arrive at least 30 minutes before they opened the doors. I'd joined the queue about two hours before they opened the doors and there were at least 100 people already in the queue - some who had been there all day (if the queue rumours were to be believed - and I do.)

So, two and a bit hours after joining the queue, we got in. Then - we stood around and waited some more. What with it being a ballroom, there were no seats or nothing. I was starting to wish I'd worn some comfortable shoes.

So, while we're waiting for people to come in, they're playing the slow, boring jazz. It's not really getting me in the mood to watch some pop-stars strut their stuff. I was expecting a warm-up before they started the show.. But it didn't come. So all we got was this jazz. Just some upbeat songs that people could start to move along with would've been a good idea I think. Just before it starts Aled Jones and some woman (I forget her name) come out and do the meekest of warm-ups to get the crowd going - and it didn't really work.

Right, first act was Pixie Lott. She's a very pretty girl and is a very good singer. She sang her songs and it was all pretty good. Felt a bit sorry for her that the crowd wasn't properly warmed up, because, compared to later acts, she didn't get the greatest feedback from the crowd.

Each of the acts (except Will Young it seemed) did a song from/for something called the Great British Songbook. I don't have a clue what this GBS is about, as far as I can tell someone/thing is compiling this book and it's going to contain some songs written by British people, as chosen by today's popular artists. Pixie did 'In My Life' by the Beatles, which is a nice song and she did a nice rendition of it. I think she forgot a word from the lyrics, possibly on purpose, but it didn't quite work. It was all okay though.

Will Young didn't explicitly pick a song for this GBS as far as I could tell. Other than his singles, I'm not really au fait with his work. He was concerned about taking too much time and didn't talk to the audience much...except to tell us that he didn't have much time and shouldn't be talking to us. Which led me to think "Why doesn't he shut up and get on with it then, or at least tell us something useful if he really must?"

Later I mused that perhaps, since he's an established artist, his own works may be deemed suitable for entry into this GBS.

Will was fine. He's a good singer and put lots of energy into his performance. He was wearing tight trousers, and the presenter woman made reference to him having to pack a lot into them, but, other than his legs, I couldn't really see anything had been packed in them. Although, apparently, he was keeping some vegetables down there. Maybe he's drying them out for winter storage.

When Daniel Merryweather came on stage I thought "Who is this gay cowboy?" He looked like he should have been either playing a role as a Jet in West Side Story, or maybe playing a part in Oklahomo. His look wasn't modern enough to draw comparisons to Brokeback Mountain. He had a teddy boy hairstyle and was wearing a black leather jacket, white shirt, tight jeans, and had a belt with a giant metal buckle, and a was wearing black neckerchief.

His band on the otherhand, were the hippest bunch of crazy cool cats. There was a guy on a trumpet, a guy on a saxophone, guys bass lead guitars and two drummers. The main drummer was a white guy, who was very good, but there was also this Rasta guy on a drum-kit doing backup rhythm. He looked like he was having the time of his life and looked incredibly cool.

Anyway, Daniel was good. He did Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed for the GBS, and did a good job of it too.

Now I come to the two other artists who were there that night, Newton Faulkner and Mika. What differentiated these guys from the others is that, as well as being great singers, they're also proper musicians and played during their sets.

Newton Faulkner looks like a homeless tramp. He really does. But then again, he also looks like any other cool non-trendy type you'd find hanging around any city. He's got a big ginger beard, dreadlocked hair, he's overweight and he's not "pretty". He absolutely blew me away. His songs I had already heard before on the radio and such. While I knew his songs, I wasn't aware he was the name behind them, so in that sense, I'm not a big fan of him, but I like the songs. Hearing him live and seeing him perform was pretty amazing.

For the GBS he did a song I've not heard for years. It's called Pure Imagination and it was written for the "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" film. It's sung, in the film, by Gene Wilder, when he lets everyone out into the Chocolate Room. It is a brilliant song, and Newton did a fantastic job with it. I really loved it, and haven't been able to get it out of my head since.

Finally, I come to Mika. As I've said before, I know nothing about the people behind modern music and I thought Mika, sounding like a girl's name, would be a female artist, but no, he's the guy who does the Grace Kelly song (The one that goes I could be brown, I could be blue, I could be violet sky) and We Are Golden, amongst others, but they might be two you're familiar with.

The bottom line is Mika is a fantastic showman and easily worked the crowd into a frenzy. He was full of energy and very flamboyant. A genuine entertainer. He wasn't up his own arse either - which was very refreshing.

His GBS song was George Michael's Faith. It was upbeat and fun.

His last song, "Lollipop", really got the crowd going. They threw out about 20 or so giant silver balloons into the crowd and fired a shedload of glittery confetti into the crowd out of these cannon things.

All in all, I had a very enjoyable time. Despite the slow start, it really ended with a bang.

The truly best thing though, was that it was free!

Here's a link to the website where you can listen to the show and see video content (if you're in the UK at least).