‘That moment will be Gold Forever’: The Wanted bring long-awaited comeback to Utilita Arena

"That moment will be Gold Forever," a giddy The Wanted fan tells NewcastleWorld outside the Utilita Arena after the boyband's long-awaited comeback tour stops off in the city.

The hit-makers surged into the limelight in the early 2010s with a series of hit singles and a passionate fan base.

After a few years of success, by January 2014 The Wanted announced a hiatus to focus on solo projects.

Fast forward to 2022 and the band are back together again, on the road for the first time in a decade.

Newcastle's Utilita Area on Friday, March 4 was the second date on the long string of shows.

What's remarkable as people pour into the arena is the span of ages The Wanted have pulled in.

Hoards of young girls shepherded by mothers take their seats armed with a handful of glowsticks each, whilst more elderly locals also come through the doors with daughters in one arm and a glass of wine in the other.

After a slick and confident opening set from rising star HRVY, who brought his headline show to Newcastle University last year, The Wanted bound on stage to debut single 'All Time Low'.

An hour and 15 minutes of their greatest hits followed, punctuated by a mash-up of deeper album cuts for the die-hard fans.

During 'Heart Vacancy', a track that reached number two in the Top 40, two competition-winners are brought on stage to sing and sway along.

One, a nurse, is given the mic to send a rallying message of 'we made it' to the Utilita Arena crowd after a testing few years.

Other highlights of the evening include pulsing hits 'Glad You Came' and 'Chasing The Sun'.

The band mock their cringeworthy songwriting on 'Walks Like Rihanna' too, but the echoing 'boom, booms' the crowd sing back shows they couldn't care less.

Despite all the euphoria coming from the stage, fans are all too aware that just four members of the band have made it on stage.

Fifth member Tom Parker was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in 2020 and has had to miss the first dates of the tour for treatment.

He appears in videos on screen and his colleagues take a moment on stage to catch their emotions as the Geordie crowd sings his name.

There's no doubting the arena full of fans are already thinking ahead to the next The Wanted tour as they spill out, hoping next time Tom will be there too.