I was super excited about going to see Kim Wilde at the Sage last night. Geth had spotted the flyer for the gig when we were at the Sage for the Go West and Cutting Crew gig back in November, and so I booked tickets ASAP. I’ve had a few disappointments with not getting tickets for various gigs I wanted to go to in 2018, so I was really looking forward to this one.
The support act wasn’t advertised, but it was Lawrence Hill. He’s a talented guitarist and was doing some very cool stuff with loop pedals, but some of the between-song-banter didn’t go down too well with the North East audience. At one point, he introduced his song Driving To Win by asking who’d recently taken a road trip to the South of France…um, it’s a bit further to go from here than it is from London! Then, when the song actually started:
Lyrics: Are we driving to win or are we driving to lose…
Me, in my head: OH GOD THAT PUN, THAT PUN, THAT IS UNBEARABLE
Me out loud to Geth: Driving ‘Toulouse’, geddit?
Geth: 🙁 🙁 🙁 I wasn’t enjoying this song BEFORE you pointed that out.
After the support, there was about fifteen minutes of intermission (Geth took the opportunity to get us another round) before Kim Wilde and her band came on. The energy was fantastic from the start.
The tour was in support of her new album, Here Come The Aliens, which is a great album. I had listened to it yesterday before the gig and really enjoyed it, but the songs are even better live. Album lead track 1969 is the best song for me, and the band played a great performance of it during the encore.
Kim also played a lot of her old ’80s stuff, which of course went down a storm. My highlights were Cambodia, Kids In America (with which the band closed) and my favourite, You Keep Me Hangin’ On, which I couldn’t resist filming:
The show was really enjoyable, with great energy start to finish. It was the first gig I went to this year, but it’s going to take some beating!