OMO's Gig Review: "KylieX2008"

So, on Tuesday night a little group of us gays (6 in all) went to see Miss Minogue the Elder at the O2, each of us obviously giving a reason for going which was quickly undermined by the fact that we all knew all of the words to all of the songs.

Before I give you a completely useless review I would just like to add that only in Gayland could 50% of our little group be made up of porn stars. It'd had been arranged by a friend of ours and we hadn't thought (oddly) to ask who was going, so were rather pleasantly surprised to find ourselves squeezed between some rather lovely, sexy men. Who were all, to a man, completely marvellous company.

Anyway, on with the show; Kylie was of course utterly fabulous. The set comprised most of her current album (surprise!), with a good sprinkling of older hits.

As usual with Kylie it's all about the show, and the resulting set pieces and costume changes were pretty wonderful. The stage itself was incredible - similar to George Michael's stage where the back screen scrolled across the stage itself - Kylie's entire stage was lit from below and matched the patterns of the movable back screens. The whole thing was an array of lights, and was used very very well.

The downside to all the costume changes are the fact that the show never really got into its stride. We'd have three or four songs and then everything would stop for a bit, so we never really got into a momentum until very close to the end. In fact, I'd say it was only the encore which really got everyone up on their feet. And I really don't care for singers who leave the stage part way through a song to change whilst leaving backing singers to finish it off.

Trying to promote the album meant that some of the song choices didn't really work ("Speakerphone" is not a good way to start a show, and was thus followed with "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"). The weaker songs were certainly current album tracks (hello "Nu-Di-Ty" and "Heart Beat Rock"), although "In My Arms" (which we rather obviously sung as "How does it feel in my arse?") stood up surprisingly well. Wasn't too sure about the cover of "Copa Cabana" either, but it was certainly interesting.

Highlights for me were "Shocked", "The One", "Flower" (a new song), "Kids" (always good for a sing-a-long), and "Slow", although the winner on the night had to be "Your Disco Needs You" (but perhaps that was just because we danced ourselves silly)

All in all a great show, topped off by the 6 of us ending up in a karaoke bar afterwards. Ah, porn stars and karaoke, what a surreal combination.