T'Pau / Nick Pendry

25 years, Christ it's been 25 years since I was driving my little blue mini to work, with my high end cassette player/radio combo on in my car and remembering the first time I heard 'China in your hand' thinking "this girl can sing."

Hearing 'China' for the first time steam rollered a sort of obsession, I loved everything about what T'Pau were all about, Female rock chick with balls, surrounded by hunky men, Ronnie included, that could actually write stonking songs and that were a local band to me.



Ashamedly, I followed the band from their amazing five week run at No 1 with 'China' and their quadruple multi-platinum selling album 'Bridge of Spies', right through to 'The Promise' which went Silver in the early 90's.

I had seen them everywhere at the height of their fame, at the LG Arena on the 'Rage' tour, right through to sweaty venues like Hammersmith Odeon and Gloucester Leisure Centre, where my brother managed to convince Dean Howard and Mike Chetwood to put us on the guest list.

So tonight was about stepping back in time and enjoying that roller coaster I joined back in the 80's, least tonight I was the oldest swinger in town, I was joined by other 40 something's that were just out for a good old sing song and a bloody good time.

The 28 date tour was announced to celebrate 25 years of the release of 'Bridge of Spies', travelling the length and breadth of the country and even taking in Isle of Wight Festival and playing to a 5,000 strong audience.

Robin 2 is your typical club, very sweaty, smelly and where your feet stick to the floor if you stand long enough, it was gonna get hot tonight like a sauna, and boy was I right, even much so Carol Decker's make-up ended up running down her face.

Support was provided by Nick Pendry, of Welsh nationality and from Merthyr originally. Why can 99% of Welsh singers sing? And boy can this boy sing, providing a 30 minute set and breaking his 'G' string to boot and throwing two covers in for good measure by Stereophonics and Adele. He proved he's not only good with his guitar and drum, but with his pen too, very strong songs in the set which captivated me and made me wanna find out more about his raspy voice.

I was quite excited about tonight as it was about celebrating 25 years and I got to step back in time and reminisce about all the amazing songs I'd listened to T'Pau-wise and all the amazing venues I'd travelled to to see them, obviously my partner wasn't too happy when I said "T'Pau are touring d'you fancy coming along?" the look of distain on her face, "Oh shit, not another 80's gig!", but of course she came along to keep me company.



We were stashed away in the corner of the venue so we had a bird's eye view of Ronnie and Carol, Cameras were at the ready too, but its hard to shoot when all you wanna do is jump around and punch the air.

T'Pau graced the stage at 9.30 and did an absolutely blistering set, just under 90 minutes, it was by far in all the years I've been reviewing and shooting gigs the sweatiest and hottest gig ever, how on earth Decker wore that full length leather jacket on stage I'll never know.

Well, any way's, although Decker's a young 55 years old (she'll kill me for mentioning her age!), she can still kick anyone's ass on stage and tonight was a testament to that.

90 mins of pure class, my ears were in absolute clover, I felt like I was 20 again (only lasted 90 minutes though!), hit after hit after hit. We even heard the likes of 'Road to Our Dream', which gave me shivers down my spine, the same with 'Island', it was so good to hear both of them live again.

One of the main things why I like T'Pau was they could always sing live and they were as good at ballads as penning a stonking tune and tonight showed that again and again, 'Sex Talk' and 'Monkey House', alongside my favourite tune of the night 'Only the Lonely', made the goose pimples appear.

Decker stomped around all night in high heeled studded rock chick boots, tight trousers and the hottest leather jacket I've ever seen, to which she told a little ditty about how she was heckled by the store owner after browsing in the shop and was told they would make her something for her forthcoming tour. Apparently she didn't know they also made stuff for the likes of Johnny Depp and Beyonce too.

I've always loved Decker's no nonsense approach, some might say she's arrogant and a tad big headed, but who gives a shit, she can sing and write, and has proved she has the stamina to keep up with the big boys, just look at the success of all three, yes three T'Pau albums.



Last but one date of the tour and it was pure excellence, was amazing to see the Decker-Rogers duo back on stage together after all these years, shame it wasn't the original line up, Dean Howard would've been at home at that venue last night, don't let this detract from the fact that the band providing Decker with the music were amazing, it just would've been nice for the original line up to do a one off, Christ I would've definitely paid to see that.

All that's left to say is, last night was immense, Decker's still got it and I look forward to seeing her again, whenever that is. I left the venue, very sweaty, stinky, with one happy partner and with 'China in your Hand' ringing in my ears. One very happy bunny.

FUTURE GIGS

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