Go West

Saturday night saw the 80's revived in Birmingham and no, it wasn't at a night club. Go West were in town at the fabulous Birmingham Symphony Hall to celebrate their 25th Anniversary tour.



I got to the venue to discover that the show was in two parts and had an interval, very strange! And no support act to warm us up - just Go West to entertain us. As I grabbed my seat I watched the extravaganza begin. The crowd was made up of 40 and 50 somethings; I'm 42 and this is the first gig that I've actually felt young at! There were Go West die hard's sitting at the front and as soon as the show kicked off everyone was on their feet, we only sat down at the interval!

The stage set was a bit basic - a black sheet with the Go West logo illuminated on the back. Pete Cox and Richard Drummie were supported by a 4 piece band who complemented these accomplished musicians. Mr Drummie was wearing his 80's jeans at the show, could they have been any tighter?

I must admit at this point that I only ever possessed 2 Go West albums in my teens and I was expecting the set to be sensational and a hit fest. However, I was left somewhat disappointed as after the first 45 minutes they proceeded to sing two covers including 'Black and Gold' by Sam Sparro and one of Paulo Nutini's hits! Didn't they have enough material of their own to sing?

The highlights of the first part of the show were 'Faithful', 'Eye to Eye' and the new single 'Skin Deep' which is an absolute stonker of a song. The rest left me and my friend (who came from Henley to see the act and was just a chit of a kid when Go West hit the big time) deflated. We just wanted to hear the hits and got none of them. Unless you were a big fan of Go West's you wouldn't have recognised some of the songs. Obviously because I only had a couple of albums I missed out!

There was one plus point though - Cox's vocals haven't changed one iota since the 80's, still gravelly and powerful and I loved it!

After the interval and the ice cream the second part of the performance kicked off with the Kings of Leon classic 'Sex on Fire'. Although it was a good cover this is a song that you can never match, the original is always better, but it did the trick by getting the audience riled up and singing. The only downside was Cox forgot the lyrics half way through. Ooopps!


Next came 'Sideways', 'Let Love Come' and 'I'll Be The Sun You Be The Moon'; sadly I didn't appreciate any of these hits but thankfully the recognisable hits soon started. 'Goodbye Girl' was sensational, obviously I sang along and was ecstatic! This was followed up by an absolute peach of a song 'Don't Look Down'. The crowd were whipped in to a frenzy and I joined the ride.

The next four songs were amazing and exactly the reason why I went – to hear Go West's classics like 'Tracks Of My Tears', 'SOS', 'Call Me' and 'King Of Wishful Thinking'. At this point we left on a high and missed the encore due to the rush for the car park.

All in all the show was a joy and a step back in time to my youth. Pete Cox's vocals were outstanding and it's no wonder the band had a near full venue to see the show. It was just a shame that the band felt it necessary to sing covers instead of their own hits. If you're in to the 80's and fancy a bit of party then this is the show for you, put your glad rags on and get ready to swing your pants.

FUTURE GIGS

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