Ashley: The ! 2013 Tour

'Ashley: The ! 2013 Tour' is the concert tour performed by British-American artist Ashley!. It was to promote her sophomore album, Exclamation Declaration, and also included hits from her first album New York Dreamer. The tour is the singers third tour but first on the arena scale. The show was taken over the world, varying on scale, visiting Europe, North America and South America. Plans were set original to extend the tour, were cut short, to allow Ashley to work in the studio to prepare her third albums release in the Summer.

Background
Shortly after the release of her 'Exclamation Declaration' album, Ashley announced dates for Europe, where she would be performing in arena scale venues. More dates for Europe were added after surprise demand and the singers growing popularity, as well as dates for North and South America, although these were to be performed at smaller scale venues. Initial thoughts towards the tour were positives from critics and reviewers, believing Ashley was ready to take on 'the larger stages' after performing at various Summer festivals and watching her confidence grow because of them.

Auditions for the concerts dancers and bands began for Christmas, which were judges and controlled by Ashley herself, who believed it was important to see which, if any, of the dancers and band she could connect to the most as it is "important to have (a) stage connection with (them)". Setlist, costume and staging design planning began shortly after Christmas, in January, with official rehearsals starting in February. Around this time, Ashley began various interviews to promote the tour, which saw a small surge in ticket sales, causing more of the venues to sell out and for more dates to be added in London and Birmingham. An interview at BBC Radio One revealed that close friend and collaborator Aimee Lyons was to appear at a few dates, singing 'The Enemy' with her. For the tour, Ashley filmed screen visuals up and down the country, encouraging fans to join her in making the tour 'just that bit more special'.

Recording and Releasing
Before the tour, Ashley announced that plans for a DVD and CD were on the agenda and that all dates would be recorded for this, following the success of her previous tour recordings, including the 'Privacy: 4D Extravaganza', which charted at number one on the download chart. Footage and audio from the London dates of the tour put together featured on a re-issue of the album, titled 'Exclamation Declaration Celebration', which helped increase the sales of the album, hitting the diamond status on its birthday release week. The tour official premiered on television of ITV2 and several background clips were released on the interview leading up to this.

Support acts
Smoke (original from No Little Thing and fellow collaborating partner) (Europe dates only). Sara (Europe dates only).

Setlist
Act One 1. Marionette 2. Puppet 3. Turn It On 4. Lady Marmalade (Labelle cover) 5. Saint (includes vocals and screen visuals from Kazimiera)

Act Two 6. We've Got A Problem with Aimee Stevens visuals 7. Scaredy Cat 8. Sleepign Beauty Never Sleeps 9. Hostage/I Knew You Were Trouble (contains cover interludes of Taylor Swift) 10. The Enemy (appearance from Aimee Lyons)

Act Three (B-Stage) 11. A Lifetime 12. Here's A Sorry From Me 13. War Paint 14. Amelia (Tonight Alive cover) 15. The Stars

Act Four 16. Proud Mom 17. Heartbreaker 18. Boys and Girls (Pixie Lott cover) 19. Myself and I 20. Animal

Encore 21. Privacy 22. Here I Am 23. Marionette Reprise

Tour Dates


Tour dates were released to coincide with the album (Exclamation Declaration) and the single (Here I Am) release date. The tour was split into three legs;


 * LEG ONE; UK dates (April 2013)
 * LEG TWO; USA dates (April - May 2013)
 * LEG THREE; other Europe dates (May 2013)

Leg Three consisted of dates in France, Germany and Sweden, with the show being held in smaller arena, due to the singers smaller fan base, similarly to the USA dates are part of Leg Two. A fourth leg was planned to be added, with the singer expected to tour the UK again, playing similar arenas with an altered setlist, although these plans did not materialise due to the release of her third album Silver Lining in the Summer.

Critical Reception
The show received mainly positive reviews from critics and fans alike for the Europe dates, calling it a 'night full of pop and good music' with others saying Ashley was "(she was) on top form and really showed off her live vocals".

However some slated the North and South American leg of the tour stating that the 'large show felt lost in the small venues' as no changes had been made to the setlist, costumes of performances, other than the removal of the b-stage due to venue size and a reduced dancer army and a smaller band. Despite this, vocals are acclaimed and others said it showed Ashley's ability to adapt for different areas and cultures.

Robert Pask, of www.experimentingwithhugs.blogspot.co.uk, said of the closing night of the UK Leg "proving that big things really do come in small packages, Ashley lets the animal straight out of it's cage the second she steps onto that stage. 2 hours filled with hits and tricks where you're guaranteed to be on your feet, emotionally unstable and go wild, not necessarily in that order".