The O2 Dawns With Childline...

Say seeya to The Point and howya to The O2. Yup folks. Harry Crosbie has breathe new life into Ireland's number one concert venue and relaunched it in record time. And with acts such as JLS, Eoghan Quigg, The Saturdays, Boyzone, Enrique Iglesias, The Script, Scouting For Girls, Shayne Ward and Anastacia on the opening Childline bill - it sure was a birth by fire...

Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy (Boyzone) & Eoghan Quigg

The Point Theatre has long been a prominent feature on the Irish music scene with far too many big names performing on its hallowed stage to even start to name-drop here. With world renowned artists lining-up around-the-block to play there, it was a very brave move for businessman Harry Crosbie to shut-it-down for a year and redevelop the whole site...

Harry Crosbie

And redevelop it he sure did. The Point Theatre has been rebranded as The O2 and relaunched as one of the most advanced arenas in the world, boasting world-class acoustics and an electric atmosphere guaranteed every time. And we believe him. Sure didn’t Harry enlist Bono and The Edge to test drive the arena and give it the thumbs-up before he let anyone through the door?

Eoghan Quigg

And just as the new arena was being born, another Irish success story by the name of Eoghan Quigg, was also embarking on his public debut and potentially bright future. Fresh from his long run on the X Factor the popular Derry lad came within a nose hair of winning Simon Cowell's show outright...

Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham (Boyzone)

Eoghan had a special introduction to his frantic Irish audience at The O2. His idols Boyzone & Ronan Keating became his backing singers for a replay of his X Factor finale number 'Picture of You' to the delight of his Quigger's Liggers.

Nicky Byrne

The Childline concert at The O2 was hosted on the night by Westlife's Nicky Byrne who is on a year long much needed break from ShowBiz... Hmmm. Does hosting a celeb-tastic charidee concert constitute as ShowBiz? Well, if girls throw their underwear at you, it sorta does...

Louis Walsh

But with cheeky svengali Louis Walsh watching from the wings, his protégés should know at this stage that ShowBusiness is a 7 day a week 52 weeks a year job. Celebrities don't have days off.

The Saturdays (Una Healy)

We suspect Louis wasn't just watching over the acts he has a direct interest in at Childline. He no doubt cast his concerned eye over the talented competition for his brand new unnamed girlband. And by competition we're of course referring to The Saturdays featuring Irish girl Una Healy...

The Saturdays (Una Healy, Rochelle Wiseman, Vanessa White, Mollie King & Frankie Sandford)

If Louis thinks he needs to whip his new band into shape to compete with the likes of The Pussycat Dolls and Girls Aloud, he really needs to worry about Una, Rochelle, Vanessa, Mollie & Frankie first. The Saturdays are fast building a fanbase on BOTH sides of the Atlantic and have set the bar very high for Louis' ladies.

Shayne Ward

It's not like Mr. Walsh has the complete midas-touch when it comes to his acts. He has had as many failures as successes and his last big artist Shayne Ward seems to have fallen-off the radar lately. Doing the whole Justin Timberlake circa 2006 thing didn't really work out for our Shayno.

Enrique Iglesias

But the big news from the Childline concert was when all round fanny-magnet Enrique Iglesias pulled a sixteen year old girl from the crowd and snogged her live on stage to the astonishment and jealousy of his fans...

Anastacia

Enrique wasn't the only big international name on the bill. O no. Sexy US singer Anastacia was also there belting out-tunes to the delight of the 13,000 or so screaming audience members...

The Script - Danny O'Donoghue

But for our money the only act we were really interested in at Childline was Irish rockband The Script fronted by Danny O'Donoghue. The poor three-piece group has hardly had time to pee since her since their track 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved' topped the charts all over the world. At least they're home for Christmas. A certain model called Irma Mali must be delighted. Ahem.

JLS

Another acts at The O2 on an amazing Childline night included X Factor four piece JLS, Scouting for Girls and Danish pop-rock band Alphabeat...

Nicky Byrne, JLS, Boyzone, Eoghan Quigg, The Saturdays