Here and Now Tour.

Nynex Arena

Sunday 22 December 2002

The day before Christmas, and this was a brilliant, glittering present for Mr Mark Ernest Gut (of Wigan LVO) and myself. As ever I didn't really want to be bothered going, it was a Sunday, I was in a mood after United had been beaten by Blackburn, and of course I was in stress with all the circumstances surrounding Dad. Couldn't get out of it though, Mark came down, drove us up to town and after a couple of pints my mood began to lift and it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable nights of the year. The format of the concert was similar to the recent Legends of Rock: a number of acts who had modest success in the past getting back together for a last hurrah and some money. Unlike the Legends though, none of these acts were in any sense serial under achievers, I think they all had had at least one number one hit, and they all knew how to put a sparkly pop show on. It shouldn't really be counted in my normal run of pop concerts because I would never have gone to see any of these individually, although I could be tempted now with the Human League. A wise decision was  to go in at the advertised start time as there didn't seem any time allowed for support acts. Thought the first act up was a support act though, Visage, or properly Steve Strange. Without the make up or costume he looked like a bloke from the audience and it wasn't until "Fade to Grey" was played that there was a murmur of recognition and we knew the concert was on. A nice little set was played by the Belle Stars, whose "Sign of the Times" is an established Gutty Album favourite. One of the best moments of the evening then arrived as a huge cake arrived on stage. Perhaps should have guessed what was coming, "Happy Birthday" started playing and out of the cake came Clare Grogan, looking stunning, especially considering how close to my own age she is. There were to be similar revelations later on! She's certainly a fantasy figure for every non gay bloke of a certain age, and Mr Gut was fairly salivating. All the famous tracks of Altered Images were played and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially as from the first moment she opened her mouth, it was exactly like Moira talking! The most boring part of the night was Five Star. Talentless and I didn't know any of their stuff, although I suppose an aficionado would say they did well enough. As Mr Gut said, I don't think you should expect too much from a group named after a type of petrol!  Next up were Dollar, who went through their handful of hits quite competently, and Theresa Bazaar looked very fit. There was, and still is, controversy as to whether the bloke really was David Van Day. If so, he has aged in a similar way to me and many of the blokes there. Another fantasy figure from our youth therefore came up in the very beautiful form of Kim Wilde. She looked almost as good as she did all those years ago, and the performance was electric, "Kids in America" fairly had people jumping up and down and singing who should have known better. Nice to see that her brother was still there in the thick of the action too. The highlight of the night was undoubtedly the Human League. It was their concert really, they were the only ones to have a special stage set constructed, which meant an interval, and they played quite a long set, although not as long as if it had been just them. Although they had done a few pleasant electronic type pop songs, I wasn't expecting much, but I was blown over. The sound was loud and superb, all the famous hits and a number of others were played, and it was a thoroughly professional performance. I have probably been overly swayed in my opinion of this concert by what was my favourite moment of the night. This was when I suddenly noticed that Joanne Catherall was not wearing the clothes she had come on stage in, but was in a bikini with a type of see through veil. Now with my years advancing it takes a fair bit to get me excited, but this nearly made me blow my top. She looked absolutely fantastic, and to think that she is virtually my own age. One of Mark's happiest memories is of me trying to get to the front to get a better view - can't blame me! The "other one" looked gorgeous as well. After tonight's performance I could be tempted to go and see them again. Thus after very many misgivings I went home very happy and at long last in suitable mood to celebrate Christmas and with my strength buoyed up to face the very difficult family circumstances that were in the midst of happening. (02.11.03)