“Pop don’t stop, a “Wilde” night in London Town” – Kim Wilde, Gig Review

Koko to be precise. Mornington Crescent, Camden. A magnificent and intimate venue, on many levels with small balconies and viewing points rising to the ceiling, the sort of arena where the audience always feel on top of the action.

Even better when one of the most successful British female pop acts of the 1980’s was returning to town, with a real spring in her step and a new album to showcase. In one of her new numbers she implored the excited audience to ‘dance like it’s your birthday’. It really was that sort of night, most of the ‘all standing’ congregation leaping around to her beck and call, to new and old songs alike.

The older classics will always be the most popular for a gig of this nature. They needed to be played and they were. She’s far too consummate a performer not to know what her audience like best and she delivers in bundles, yet at the same time playing enough tracks from the new album to give the ‘less informed’ observer an easy decision to make as to whether to invest in the new CD, vinyl or download.

She blurted out the likes of “Chequered Love’; ‘View from a Bridge’, ‘Water on Glass’, ‘You keep me Hanging On’ and ‘Kids from America’ with energy and gusto and the crowd joyfully joined in, feeling the moment. Indeed in the aftermath of the gig, the heroine of the night proclaimed that it was a ‘concert of a lifetime’ which was really saying something, clearly it was as good for her as it was for those lucky enough to be there to witness it too.

She has retained her attractive looks and her distinctive shock of blonde hair still gives the image of a rock chic and her all-in-one tight fitting outfit did nothing to dispel the theory. She can still produce the goods on stage and remains something of an icon for her followers. If she can carry on like this, with brother Ricky and niece Scarlett in tow, then she has many more years left to perform and woo her fans, just like she did on Thursday night.

The aliens might be coming after her but the ‘pop don’t stop’.