SSE Arena, London, May 27 2018

Series composer Ramin Djawadi brings his six seasons of Game of Thrones scores to life with a spectacular continent-hopping tour, dripping with all of the bells and whistles that you’d expect from the world’s biggest TV show.

It was somewhat ironic that a large number of concertgoers were sporting ‘Winter is Coming’ T-shirts, watching artificial snow drifting from the SSE Arena’s ceiling, when it was actually one of the hottest days of the year. The venue’s air-con was doing its darnedest, but the main hall was hot hot hot – for the hottest ticket in town.

Ramin Djawadi previously took the show on tour in America, but this time they crossed the Narrow Sea to Essos… erm Europe, before covering the States again this autumn. And what a show. This isn’t your regular orchestra in front of projected screen, as Djawadi not only conducts the concert, but plays a series of instruments. He’s joined by bravura principal performers on violin and cello, as well as a lead vocalist and ethnic instrument performers.

Kicking off with his brief but punchy main theme, the arena lit up with excitement. Issac Hempstead-Wright (Bran Stark) entered from stage right and teased that we were in for a real treat – he wasn’t wrong. A medley of the key house themes (Stark, Lannister, Greyjoy, Targaryen, etc) served as a tasty precursor to the main thematic material that we were about to hear. Goodbye Brother is a beautiful violin-led piece from Season One, and then suddenly principal violinist Molly Rogers is lifted into the air high above the auditorium! Vocalist Stevvi Alexander is also wonderful, beautifully enunciating the tricky lyrics that are forefront in Mhysa, as well as finding the soulful lament in the Rains of Castamere.

While the programme was pretty much chronological, it wisely swapped between traditional orchestral pieces, to sole vocal-led, to choral, to featured instrument. Djawadi was front and centre, audaciously strumming electric guitar during Reign as jets of real fire shot from the ceiling, emulating the dragons’ breath.

The opening ten minutes of the Season Six finale is scored by Light of the Seven, indisputably the show’s musical highlight, and the live version does not disappoint. The entire scene is played out on giant screen as Cersei waits for the explosion in Kings Landing – it pitches between simple piano, child choral, organ, furious strings and full orchestra. Djawadi stands behind a keyboard fronted with Iron Throne fascia, which then rises from the thrust stage on a platform. Of course it does. It’s that sort of concert.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir join the travelling show for this gig and really knock it out of the park with the Battle of the Bastards, a powerful ten minutes of bloody combat which employs all sections of the orchestra. You’ve never really seen this Season Six highlight until you’ve seen it on a big screen with live accompaniment. By the time our watch had ended with a reprise of the main theme, we were exhausted and thrilled.

Verdict: So much more than a two-hour trailer to the show’s final season, this is one of the best live soundtrack performances I’ve ever seen, and the only criticism is that I couldn’t go back and watch it all again. Epic on every level, this sets the benchmark for future concerts in this genre. 10/10

Nick Joy