Belinda Carlisle
Belinda Carlisle, lead vocalist with 80's Los Angeles beat group The Go-Go's, was in Norwich tonight performing for the second time in less than six months. Back in June, Carlisle was at Earlham Park alongside Chesney Hawkes, Captain Sensible and Kim Wilde as part of the one day Let's Rock festival. Tonight she was at the Nick Rayns LCR on the third date of a nine-date UK tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of multi-Platinum selling album Heaven On Earth. For those who missed her in June it was a chance to make amends, whilst for those who attended the Earlham Park event, it was a chance to return and experience a full headlining set.
The audience is certainly not dominated by students prepared to invest £32.50 of their student loan on this particular night out. Instead, I chat to an older couple that have made the trip from Cambridge, and also to a super-fan that has bought tickets for every one of the nine UK shows. For a generation that in 1987 was still discovering the novelty of digital music on shiny silver discs, Heaven On Earth still holds a lot of memories, and Belinda Carlisle is still pop royalty.
Support comes from one Gabe Lopez, a well-known performer and producer on the Los Angeles music scene who co-produced and co-wrote many of the songs on Wilder Shores, Carlisle's new album released this year. One cannot deny the man's musical talents, but I cannot help be reminded of one or two of those LA characters from the television show Curb Your Enthusiasm. Nevertheless, the Norwich crowd give him a warm reception, and all is well. We even get a few bars of Elton's Rocket Man thrown in for good measure.
Belinda Carlisle's arrival on stage is to the sound of Sinatra crooning The Lady Is a Tramp, and she immediately launches into I Feel Free, the Jack Bruce cover off the Heaven on Earth album. It is possibly the most joyous and upbeat track off the entire album, although the slightly less-known Nobody Owns Me, which follows, is not far behind. The band are tight, and the sound is excellent, although on a couple of occasions loud enough to threaten straying into distortion.
A torn meniscus in the left knee is blamed for some uncharacteristically subdued dance moves but, with these two high-energy songs disposed of early on, the set settles into a more gentle power-ballad pace reprising a string of well-known hits - I Get Weak, Circle In The Sand and World Without You from Heaven On Earth, and Leave A Light On and (We Want) The Same Thing from the follow-up Runaway Horses. Virtually every track from HoE is included, and the obvious temptation to flood the set with material from the new album is graciously resisted. Carlisle's signature song, Heaven Is A Place On Earth, is understandably saved until last. The floor becomes a sea of raised phones and swaying arms, and the ensuing encore ends as the evening started with a joyous mantra in the shape of Live Your Life Be Free. Carlisle then returns once more to keep completists happy, performing the only remaining unplayed song from Heaven On Earth, the ballad Love Never Dies.
For Carlisle's fans the evening has been as perfect as perfect can be. For me, I would have dearly loved to have heard a couple of Go-Go's tracks (perhaps We Got The Beat and Our Lips Are Sealed?), but that was not to be. This was primarily a night in which to celebrate the solo career of an iconic artist from the 80's, and perhaps reminisce a little as well, especially for those of us still chasing that dream of freedom and a little Californian sunshine.
