Where: The O2
Why: KYLIE AND JASON, YO
[Prepare yourself: there's a lot of enthusiasm about to hit you square in the heart.]
Anyone who claims not to love the heavenly combination that is Minogue and Donovan is either a low-down dirty liar or they had their soul removed at birth and have been living as a robot. If you ever need a lift, a little cheering couple of minutes of love combined with a TUNE, you can’t do better than to hit up the original Especially for You video and just dive in. I used to watch it on repeat on an actual video tape, rewinding and everything, just because it’s impossible to get enough. I still think they look cool AS in this video even though it’s nearly as old as me. Oh, swoon.
Anyway, the promise of the first live performance of Especially for You with Kylie AND Jason in like 25 years was the main impetus for me to agree to volunteer with work at the ‘Hit Factory Live Pete Waterman love-in Festival of the Nineties’ (to give it it’s official title), safe in the knowledge that I’d get to watch the entire show and only have to shake a bucket in the intervals rather than stoop in a hot box-office for nine hours putting wristbands on the sweaty arms of ‘VIPs’ like what happened at the Olympics (still not over it). So I gleefully headed to the O2 for what turned out to be the most 90s evening of my life, even more than when I was actually living in the 90s.
The show was intended to celebrate Pete Waterman’s long reign of terror over the pop industry and was the one that had been originally intended for Hyde Park but cancelled due to apocalypse-levels of mud. All I can say is, it was worth the wait.
The first half consisted of ‘One-hit wonders’ (respectful), kicking off with the EPIC 2 Unlimited. If I ever needed to get the party started, these two would be the first vintage dance duo I’d call. They actually got to sing a few of their tracks, on account of them being amazing, and it was the best way to literally blast everyone firmly back into the past. They were followed by Hazel Dean (no idea), one of Brother Beyond (no idea), the lovely Sonia (SCREAM! Took me STRAIGHT back to Brownie pack holiday), Pepsi & Shirley (ladies of Wham! Ladies with attitude), Sinitta who was freaking terrifying as expected (men in pants undressing her… NO), and Princess (no idea). The backing dancers for all the acts, I have to say, were sublime and perfectly energetic and got the moves SO RIGHT. What was not so right, however, was Waterman making his first trip onto the stage to announce how happy he was to have everyone together again, apart from his good friend Donna Summer, followed by a few tears and then shoving his newest artist, a 16-year old youth, onstage to cover a couple of her tracks and basically bring everyone DOWN. Bad move Pete. He did get a lot o’ love from all the other acts though, each of them praising him for making their dreams come true, which fair enough, whatever, but gush on your own time guys, I require a constant stream of funky moves to keep me awake after two days of office Christmas partying had begun to take its toll. The first half ended with Dead or Alive spinning us all right round, and one of whom I bumped into backstage (ha, check me out right, so glam) looking absolutely terrifying due to extreme tallness and face paint, plus menacing attitude.
The second half was a total winner, and featured the more successful PWL acts. Rick Astley had the audience in the palm of his hand and charmed the pants off all the ladies in the crowd (“I need to see some JIGGLE, ladies!”), schmoozing his way through several hits with his velvety tones, and finishing on the one and only Never gonna give you up (during which I found myself doing the Peter Kay school disco dance moves, not a good sign). Bananarama followed, who I was most excited about seeing (after K&J, obv), and they didn’t let me down. Only two of the original three members still perform, and they are absolute legends. Witty, sarcastic, totally chilled out about life in general, they were flawless vocally and dance-wise, and looked fabulous, despite self-disparaging remarks such as “the moves to this are a KILLER” and “we’re getting too old for this”. They were just hilarious, and best of all they sounded just like Bananarama. Which I know is such a stupid thing to say but it really hit me that I was actually seeing Bananarama, legends of the girl group genre. They did me proud by singing all the best ones (although they forgot about Robert de Niro’s waiting, a personal fave) – Love in the first degree, I want you back, I heard a rumour, Venus… (all the crowd doing the firey dance moves… amazing). SO GOOD.
Then came Jason Donovan, who seems to be the sweetest man in the world and does a good tune, I grant you. I never really followed his solo career (I was loyal to Kylie, man) but I can get down to Too many broken hearts with the best of them. STEPS were next – I admit, I wasn’t expecting good things after seeing various TV performances from them since their reunion, but they were actually extremely slick and impressive, and got a massive response from the crowd – especially Claire, who got big cheers every time she sang. Seeing thousands of people simultaneously doing the moves to Tragedy and One for Sorrow cannot fail to make you laugh and there was a lot of general good feeling, and they were a proper blast from the past.
And then finally, finally… it was time. Pete Waterman came out and did the introduction, my heart started beating a billion times a second, and the famous ‘Oooohs’ from the start of the song floated over the crowd, and were instantly drowned out by the SCREAMS which burst out after presumably having been building up for twenty-five years. Kylie and Jason appeared from either side of the stage and totally represented. My life came full circle and it was a beautiful moment. He even picked her up and swung her round in the middle of the song, as of old. I have rarely known such utter contentment with the state of things. Basically it was great. Then they all came back on and sang Merry Christmas, I hit our dressing room (oh yes, we were opposite Pete Waterman), and as I emerged spotted H from Steps and basically shouted “IT’S H FROM STEPS” in his face, in more of a factual than enthusiastic manner (let’s face it, he’s a knob), and then I went home and slept for 13 hours.
Brixpig x
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