ConcertsbycandlelightReviews of concertsbycandlelight.com

The cathedral is amazing, and the candles were wonderful. I expected a stripped back unplugged possibly even choral versions of Bowie, but no. Think of the version of Life on Mars by the King’s Singers and how brilliant that is. That’s what I expected. What we got was a tribute band, and not a very good one. Acoustics in the Cathedral are not at all suited to a rock band so it was just a noise unfortunately. Shockingly bad noise. It was a case of which Bowie song shall we murder next? It was bad; really BAD. As a huge Bowie fan and having seen him quite a few times it was quite embarrassing. Absolutely nothing stood out as being worthwhile, not the singing, not the guitar, not the bass, not the drums. All just bland noise. Lif on Mars was just about passible, but the guy vaguely dressed as the thin white duke should not give up his day job. We left at the intermission as it was just so awful. If you are a real Bowie fan, honestly give it a miss, as you will just hate it. If you are tone deaf and not really a Bowie fan, but wear dungarees and want to gyrate in the aisle infront of an audience that think you’re a numptie then this is definitely for you.

Bowie by candlelight, i can without doubt express that the Coventry Cathedral was not built with rock music in mind as the beautiful tall structure creates such a large echo that i do think any sound person could overcome such a challenge. The venue is lovely, the atmosphere relaxed and people seemed to be enjoying themselves however, none of the key features of the music could be heard at all, just a wash of the general outline of the tracks being played, the band looked like they were playing it all but you could not hear it. I have attended 2 concerts here now and both had the same awful sound.

Shocking acoustics at the 20th of June Coldplay by Candlelight at Guildford Cathedral. The moment they started it was clear that amplified pop music was not going to work. We lasted 3 songs and left. The singers setup was so loud it drowned out the music, part from guitar and drums. Couldn’t hear the string section at all. The sound engineer just shrugged and said “I can’t do anything about it” which either meant they didn’t do a sound check before, or they did a sound check and just thought, “ahh well, we’ve got their money…” Disgusting. Ruined an evening we’ve been looking forward to for weeks.

The Concerts by Candlelight founders wrote to me with a huge thanks after I had attended one of their concerts 4 days before. I really didn’t know why I was receiving a huge thanks as I had provided no feedback on what was a disappointing experience. I then proceeded to reply to their email but it was a no-reply email address which was fitting. So after failing to find an email address to direct my feedback I am sharing it here : Dear Concerts by Candlelight Team, I attended your Fleetwood Mac concert at Worcester Cathedral last Saturday evening.( 06/06/2026) . Let me first congratulate you for using such a wonderful building and setting for cultural events and I enjoyed the majestic setting immensely. I must say, however, the sound quality at the event was an unmitigated disaster. It was so poor it was mostly impossible to understand the lyrics, difficult to even recognize some songs with the percussion in particular was really distorting the entire sound effect making it painful to listen to. The absence of instruments in certain songs were the only passages which were listenable. We were sitting fairly 40 metres from the stage - in row C - and many other people around me commented as to how awful the sound was and were sifferingvthr same pain. if you're going to charge £50 per ticket, I must expect the concert promoter to ensure the sound system quality was good, because after all this is a musical event. So while I praise the cathedral concert concept as the sound system was do appalling, it's quite the worst concert I have ever visited. The acoustics of Worcester Cathedral are quite magnificent but it requires the necessary equipment and expertise to deliver a quality listening experience and unfortunately your team doesn’t appear to be equipped with hardware or the skillset to stage concerts. The low TP rating and similar reviews here rather confirm my suspicions that it’s a great concept but a s**t execution.

Tina Turner tribute - St Mary’s Church, Warwick May 30th. We’ve attended a number of C by C’s performances at this venue and most have been excellent. Not this one however - the singer’s voice was a good version of TT’s but the lack of backing singers & the band’s lacklustre performance was disappointing. Also, the singers persistent mimicking of the original’s facial expressions quickly became tedious. Our main complaint however was the very poor sound-mixing which meant that the band drowned out the singer on most songs (and before the Church’s acoustics are blamed, previous concert sound mixing were perfect).

Gatesheads hans zimmer was not good, I gave a review to them directly but they chose to delete it, booked front seats, one woman tried to keep one for her late friends who didn't turn up, we were put behind them because of this, we booked a photo it was nearly the size of a passport one, the drinks were room temperature, absolute rip off. Never again Gateshead.

Attended Candlelight Concert (Frankie Valli) in St. Albans cathedral last night. The performers were very good but I paid £95 for two seats and couldn't see much so ended up sitting at the side to watch it on the TV screens! The severe lack of candles was also very disappointing - hardly a candlelit concert. I'd seen photos of these concerts and the amount of candles looked amazing, but not here. Wouldn't go again - very disappointed.

I have given this two stars because of the performers and band, they were very good. However the sound quality was not great. Unfortunately the low rating is mainly due to the fact the tickets were expensive, we sat just 8 rows from the front but we're unable to see from halfway through the second half of the show, due to people standing. They were encouraged to do this by the performers despite being asked at the start of the concert to only dance/stand at the sides of Exeter cathedral. Nothing was done by either the performers, organisers or the cathedral to get people to move or sit down. I attended with my husband who has health conditions meaning he cannot stand for long periods and my elderly friend who also wasn't able to stand. The seats were uncomfortable and due to the flood lighting the candles might as well not have been there as they had no affect at all. I contacted the show and cathedral afterwards but received little response. I would not recommend these shows to anyone!