Last night saw myself and my two best friends heading up to Newcastle upon Tyne for the first night of the ‘Living Spirits Tour’. The tickets had been bought by my friend as part of my birthday present, and I have to admit I was quite looking forward to seeing these ‘professionals’ in action. Now I am not one for psychic shows on television, in fact I avoid them. I find them over hyped, insensitive and well, over produced. I have however been on a number of ghost hunts/investigations, held seances, channelled spirit, given readings and done just about  everything that such an event involves. However I would never, ever, consider opening myself up to the criticism and ridicule that these TV Psychics get. Instead I’ll just get on with things, and commune with spirit in my own way, thank you very much.

Living Spirits Tour

It’s not that I am against psychics using television as a method or reaching their audiences, it’s just that in my opinion, the personal touch, the intimacy of the medium/spirit/ client relationship is lost in the process. Messers Fry and Acorah though I have seen on TV and was interested to know how they would be live on stage. I have to admit that there has always been something about Derek Acorah that just doesn’t sit well with me, but again that could all be down to the way that he is portrayed in the media and the image that he presents of himself as being more than a little showbiz personality/celebrity than a down to earth medium. Colin Fry however has always come across, to me anyway as being very down to earth and very connected to the world around him.

Derek Acorah took to the stage first, and I tried to take him at face value as though I had never seen him before. I found his method of mediumship strained, as though the information wasn’t flowing as well as it could. We all get bad connections and perhaps this was what he was experiencing as he was not 100% fit and well himself. To my mind it seemed as though he was always seeking validation for what he was putting out and was constantly repeating phrases like ‘That’s a fact’ and ‘That’s the truth’ as well as ‘Well that’s the information I have I can’t change it if you can’t accept it’. It just seemed to be hard work for him. By the end of his hour on the stage he was sweating profusely and looked as though he needed to lie down for a while.

After the interval, and some delicious sticky toffee ice cream, it was the turn of Colin Fry to take to the stage. He immediately struck up a rapport with the audience and you could feel the level of the energy in the room raising, even when he announced that he would be semi retiring at the end of the tour to be ordained as a spiritualist minister, you could still feel the response from the room. Messages that he received were passed on with some wonderful details, humour and yes, love. The information seemed to come far easier and was more refined and defined that from Mr Acorah. It did strike the three of us sitting there in the front row that it was the same people that were being retuned to with messages from loved ones, but I suppose some people need more support and reassurance than others. Colin was a lot smoother on the stage, a lot calmer and much more grounded and centred than could be said for Derek, his movements were frantic and jerky compared to those of his colleague.

The final part of the show saw the pair of them working together, though by this point I think the energy in the room had faded somewhat. People in the row behind us were moaning and complaining they were tired, some old dears along the row from us had been talking amongst themselves and causing a bit of an annoyance too. As we left the building to make our way back to the metro station through the monsoon conditions that cloaked the north east last night, Fry and Acorah were signing books in the foyer.

I’m glad I went, and I’m also glad that I got to experience ‘professionals’ at work, but, it’s not something that I shall be looking to do again.