- Saturday 13th September, the dance happy, champagne fuelled, girls set off for a brand new venue so that one of us (ahem) could drool a little at the feet of the man she had once intended to marry.
I was 13 or 14 when Nik Kershaw first got picked up on my adolescent radar with 'I won't let the sun go down on me' and it was true love. This may well have also been the last time that I was the same size as Nik, he boldly claimed a 5'5 on Saturday night but that's not what he told The Guardian
"I am not tall – I was 5ft 4in last time I measured myself,
but I am probably smaller now: people start shrinking at 45."
He is decidedly diddy but with a voice that can soar and stir. It is the same voice and for awhile, sitting in a church (that's novel) with my bestie, I was 13 again and utterly lost.
- Nik Kershaw an unlikely but self confessed love child of Leonard Cohen and Mr Tumble charmed us with talk of the past and the present and songs new and old. He won me over with 'Wide Boy' and kept me in the palm of his hand for a long solo acoustic set.
- I forgave him for not sharing with the audience that The Riddle had, in fact, been a coded love song to my teenaged self, after all his wife Sarah was in the house. But I don't think anyone fell for the 'It was a load of bollocks really - tree, river….. just an impromptu play on a folk song' YEAH RIGHT! But the secret is safe with me Nik.
- 1st Half
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(David Bowie cover)
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- This was a set of two halves (literally) so I feel that we can take a brief intermission to talk about the union chapel itself. Hmmmm.
- The union chapel is a beautiful working church in the heart of Islington. A stunning building and if I were God (why hasn't that happened yet by the way?) then I am sure that I would like to hang out there.
- It's highly atmospheric and the lighting is stunning - for some numbers I just watched Nik's shadow (bigger than he is) playing against the domed ceiling like a kind of cool guitar playing Peter Pan.
- But, and it's a big but, it is very….. proper. Alcohol is served in an upstairs bar and you cannot bring it down into the chapel hidden in your large jacket pockets, no sireeee, no way, don't even think about it. You sit in the pews and sit and sit and sit. The dance happy girls don't sit and it feels sort of wrong. To be fair an acoustic gig of this nature with a lot of talk does kind of lend itself to sitting but it felt enforced! If you stand no one else will be able to see and some of the audience clearly needed to be sitting. It is not sweaty and sticky - it is possibly the gig venue for people who do not like gigs, if only I knew of such a person…
The second half was as strong as the first with pauses for questions from the audience ranging from 'Why didn't you marry me?' (or perhaps that was just in my head) to 'What do you really think about Howard Jones?' all answered with a grin and a twinkle, a likeable self depreciation and a minor rant about us paying more for our babysitters than for our tickets.
The audience had warmed up a bit - I hope they weren't guilty of secreting alcohol about their person in the house of the lord. And there was a very jolly sing along to The One and Only. I'm guessing Nik had heard about my dance with Chesney and was just asserting his position AS the one and only.
You can definitely hear Janie and I here - we were the ones who knew the second line :) And we were not doing the community clapping thing. The dance happy girls do NOT clap on demand!
- 2nd Half
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(Chesney Hawkes cover)
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- Encore:
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(Stevie Wonder cover)It was a well rounded set, finishing with I won't let the sun go down on me was a must and the encore of Human Racing was just gorgeous. He did a good Stevie Wonder but to be fair I would rather he had finished with one of his own - I always want to leave singing along to the main man.Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes? Well, I fear that they would be rather small Nik - but it was good to get up close and personal. You sang the hell out of Saturday night.
Thank you for my birthday present! Nik Kershaw, the Peter Pan of rock (well, pop really) and actually, he's small enough to be Tinkerbell. And as for alcohol in a church, I have no idea whatsoever what you're talking about. How dreadful that people would even THINK of smuggling glasses in their rather large coat pockets.....
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