This unofficial site features his current and recent events and tours
Review of Golden Pop recording - Lille - 3rd April 2008
This was announced without further details in early February and on a daily basis I checked for updates of where exactly and at what time this event was going to be, but none were forthcoming. I had discussed with friends the possibility of going but as the time came closer and no details had been provided, we assumed it wasn't happening. Suddenly on Monday 31st March (four days before), there it was with full details and an online ticket site. I had to make some quick decisions, but now my friends could no longer make it as it was too short notice to book any time off work. It wasn't something that I would consider going to on my own, but as luck would have it my 15 year old daughter would be on spring holiday, all I had to do was to persuade her to come. I'm recovering well from my operation, but not back at work yet and still under lifting restrictions. Once my decision was made, late on Tuesday night it was time to go online and book everything.
After an uneventful train journey to London, a tube across London and onto the Eurostar to Lille, we even used the Lille metro to get to our hotel, unfortunately because of the short notice we only arrived in Lille at 5 pm, not much time to sort everything out and get to the venue 3km away from the city centre at Maison Foile de Wasemmes.
We arrived at the venue around 7.30 pm and joined the queue, after a 10 minute wait we were let into the venue behind lots of people who had won tickets from a radio station. Into the auditorium and found it was a standing gig, I'm not sure why but I had a feeling it would be seated. I was able to get near to the middle, second row. We waited another 15 minutes or so and the french announcer ran through a few things, unfortunately my schoolgirl french from over 30 years ago wasn't much help and I only understood about 10 - 15% of what she said and as it was being filmed for TV and DVD there was something said about photography and flashes. I decided that it probably wasn't a good idea to try and take photographs, there was also a boom camera filming the audience too.
It was finally time for the show to start. Carol Decker of T'Pau was up first and sang three of their hits including 'China In Your Hands'. Her voice is still good and sang the songs faithfully to the originals. She was backed by a band made up of Lyndon (Go West), Matt Backer, Richard Brook, Steve (Saxophonist for Martin Fry) and a lady backing singer who I didn't catch her name, but appeared off and on the rest of the evening. Next up was Steve Strange, billed as Visage with a woman singing the french bits of 'Fade to Grey'. It seems because of this song Visage was quite big in France and the crowd were very enthusiastic, but I thought he was a bit odd, but maybe that's the way he always is. Third act were Bananarama with their two male dancers who I had seen them with last year at Fantasy Island in Skegness. They sang four songs, one of which was in French which pleased the audience. They gave a good show.
Go West were up next and sang 'We close our eyes', 'Call me', 'All day all night', 'King of wishful thinking' and Let love come'. They asked the audience if they knew the film 'Pretty Woman' and they seemed to know it. Their band was Lyndon, Deeral, Richard Brook and Vinezeze (the new bass player). Martin Fry was the penultimate act and his band seemed to be the same people who had played at the Fandango and his songs included Poison Arrow, Look of Love and The Very First Time. He went down very well with the audience.
It was then time for Tony, backed by John Keeble, Phil Taylor, Phil Williams, Richie and the woman backing singer. He sang Only When You Leave, Through The Barricades, True, Gold and Save a Prayer. He talked about people writing him letters about 'True' and what the song means to them. It was lovely to see Tony back from the trek looking fit and well and it was a superb boost to my recovery.
At the end of this part of the show, a family with pre-teen children decided to go, which left spaces at the front which we moved into. As the show was being filmed they wanted to re-do some of the songs so Bananarama, Carol Decker and Go West took to the stage again.
The finale of the evening was Tony coming on stage with Martin Fry with their bands to sing Suffragette City. For the next song they were joined by Go West and their band for Addicted to Love. It was a definite reminder of the gig at the Wessex Stadium in Weymouth in 2005. Carol Decker joined in for the last song of the evening and with Tony putting his guitar on, I knew we were going to get Lets Stick Together. The volume for these songs was tremendous. I'm not sure how many people were on stage at this point but it was more than 12, including John Keeble and Richard Brooks on drums. I half expected them to swap drumsticks like they did on the TH v MF tour but they didn't.
I think the French people were expecting an encore after this, but had they not had to re-record the three songs they would have realised that the final three songs were the encore. I think the local people had enjoyed the evening and were an enthusiastic and appreciative. After the show I spoke to French Helene who I had previously met at the Fandango's. We then went outside to wait for Tony and I spoke to various people including Richie and Martin Fry. When Tony came out I spoke to him and walked with him to his car. It was a great evening and although very tiring for me, I am glad that I was able to go and I stayed in Lille another day to look around the city. I look forward to seeing the DVD/recordings of the show once it is editied. For any other info on the event visit www.goldenpop.de