Diamond Awards Festival: Kim is "rockchick" for a night
The Sportpaleis in Antwerp was almost sold out on Saturday, November 23rd, when the Diamond Awards festival was taking place. The annual event, which has taken place ever since the 1980's, this year featured the best acts from the two Here & Now Tours, held in the UK in November 2001 and April 2002.
Kicking off the event was T'pau's Carol Decker, showing off her fabulous vocal talent with three great tracks from her early days: Heart and soul, Valentine and China in your hand. She confessed to having a cold, but luckily her lungs were not affected: one of the most powerful voices of the night.
The second act were Go West, who presented the same strong set of songs like they did last year in the UK: Don't look down, Call me, The king of wishful thinking and of course We close our eyes.
Belinda Carlisle was the first artist to get a lot of people dancing near the front of the stage, where some room was made for the VIP's who populated the ground floor of the hall to dance and flirt with the artists. She started with In too deep, then continued with Circle in the sand, Leave a light on and Heaven is a place on earth.
Next up were ABC, represented by core member Martin Fry. Although less polished than his studio recordings, Martin still did a very respectable set, containing Poison arrow, When Smokey sings, All of my heart and The look of love. For the latter, Martin changed into his famous gold lamé suit, which looks fabulous on him in a setting like this.
For the average Kim Wilde fan, the highlight of the evening took place at around 22.30. Accompanied by brother Rick, Kim took to the stage with energetic renditions of Chequered love and View from a bridge. After greeting the audience and reflecting on the "fantastic career" she's had up until now, she said that some things had changed since the eighties. "I'm a mother, I'm a gardener, I am a lover.... But tonight, I am a rockchick."
Proving her point, she continued with Never trust a stranger, You came, You keep me hangin' on and finally Kids in America. Meanwhile, lots of things were happening in front of Kim. A group of very enthusiastic Belgians were almost fighting for her attention, holding out hands and screaming "Kim, I love you!".
Tonight's version of Kids in America was slightly heavier than usual, even resulting in Kim doing some serious headbanging near the end. Kim and Rick left the stage with the audience in awe and wanting for more.
Time to cool down and listen to some classic songs from Spandau Ballet as performed by lead singer Tony Hadley. He mixed in a couple of new songs, while not forgetting Only when you leave, Through the barricades, True and Gold. At one point, a member of the audience managed to get on stage. Tony handled it very well, shaking his hand and saying that he'd like to have a chat but didn't know a lot of Flemish. "Me neither", responded the lad, "I'm Italian".
All too soon, the concert was over, with most artists heading off to a hotel in Antwerp to celebrate a very successful night.
