| Birmingham Post (22-04-02)
SATISFYING THE
THIRST FOR TRUE NIGHT OF NOSTALGIA
Stars of this
80s revival tour are set to get the Louis Theroux
treatment, which must mean the public taste for
nostalgia is far from waning. While the mild-mannered
television presenter stalked his prey backstage
at the NEC, a capacity crowd were reliving their
youth as China Crisis, Toyah, Go West, Howard
Jones, Belinda Carlisle, ABC and three-fifths of
Spandau Ballet belted out their biggest hits.
Despite a low-key start from China Crisis,
Birmingham-born former punk Toyah skipped onto
the stage wearing a futuristic metal breastplate,
thigh-length boots and a micro skirt. By the end
of her four-song set, she had the entire arena
chanting I Want To Be Free in unison. But Go West
really got the party going, with frontman Peter
Cook shimmying around the stage teasing his
female fans as they sang Call Me, King of Wishful
Thinking and We Close OurEyes. Howard Jones dared
to be different during his set by introducing a
DJ to funk up anthems like New Song, Like To Get
To Know You Well and Things Can Only Get Better.
After a break Belinda Carlisle bounced onto the
stage barefoot only to deliver a distinctly
average performance before belting out her own
Eighties anthem - Heaven Is A Place On Earth.
Martin Fry looked every inch the suave man of pop
he did 20 years ago, even in a gold lam suit, and
the school disco vibe continued as he sang Poison
Arrow, When Smokey Sings and All of My Heart. But
I felt headliners Hadley, Keeble and Norman - of
Spandau Ballet - had the raw deal. Despite
squeezing ten songs into their own 30-minute slot
and Steve Norman's sax-playing, the crowd only
wanted to hear one song - True. Couples smooched
in the aisles while the masses sang back the
words as the concert became a communal karaoke
session. It was a great night out. (Emma Brady)
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Toyah
was AWESOME, quite the best thing in the
show (I'm not biased) and indeed I thoroughly
enjoyed the
entire bill.
My pals said that Howard Jones was the surprise
of the night, but everyone was top notch. Toyah's
parents were in the audience and we were all made
to say hello to them. To my surprise many of the
audience seemed to know the words to Toyah's
songs, not just the select few which gives me
hope for the future.(Rob Cope - Toyah fan)
I have just
about lost my voice singing. Toyah is
unfortunately on second so weweren't particularly
warmed up yet, we stood up and I got poked in the
leg by some man on crutches behind me! Toyah was
energetic as usual and made us all get up for
'It's A Mystery', she looked fabulous in her gear
and a good time was had by all. I just wish she
had been on later, she would have had full crowd
participation then.
(Tiff Davidson
- Toyah fan)
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