Thousands of North-East thirtysomethings took a trip back to their youth last night, as an `80’s revival concert hit the newcastle telewest arena.
Though the fashions of the decade were hard to spot, the tunes of the time rang out loud and clear to leave the capacity crowd yearning for the days of ra-ra skirts. pringle cardigans and fluourescent socks. The night kicked off with T’Pau singer Carol Decker and her one woman attempt to strip paint from every wall of the arena. Heart and soul warmed the crowd up nicely and china in your hand won the first big cheer of the evening.
She was followed by Nik Heyward, a man who freely acknowledged the passage of time since his pop heyday by admitting he is losing the hair on his head at around the same rate it is starting to appear in his nostrils. Comb over or not, however, he is a man who can die happy knowing thathe has written two stone-cold pop classics. Love plus one is the very essence of teenage first love, while fantastic day sounds like the happiest song ever written.
Then come go west, who overturn the prevailing wisdom of the last 20 years by being actually quite good. All the work is undone in a matter of minutes, however, by heaven 17. How bad are they?, well that depends how much time youve got. even temptation is ruined by giving it a 5 minute build up that sends most of the crowd hurrying to the bar.
Things don’t get a lot better with Curiosity killed the cat, who unwittingly give a resume of their life since the eigthies with the song down to earth. But enough of all that – here’s kim wilde, a woman who lied through her teeth to the journal earlier this week when she said she was fat. When she tears into you came and kids in america, the crowd goes wild. Paul Young rounds off the night by singing like a fallen angel and twirling round the stage like a tasmanian devil. Every man and woman in the crowd sing Everytime You Go Away back to him, and still manage to get back home in time for the babysitter.
I love the eighties.