BELINDA CARLISLE / EMERGENCY TIARA | LIVE REVIEW
St David’s Hall, Cardiff, Mon 30 Sept
A truly miserable rainy night in Cardiff gets a whole lot brighter as California’s Belinda Carlisle hits the stage at St David’s Hall. A huge crowd has assembled for the second Welsh date of a lengthy UK tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of her 1989 album Runaway Horses – an album that did a lot more business in the Europe than the US, a fact Belinda will acknowledge onstage later.
Tour support Emergency Tiara is not a name on everybody’s lips – yet – but comes bounding on stage in a whirlwind of psychedelia, backed by two singers in beautifully matched 60s-style go-go dresses and quickly wins over a fairly subdued crowd, clearly here for the main event. Emergency Tiara resemble a collaboration between The Ronettes and Dick Dale with Lady Gaga’s flair for fashion: quite how she hasn’t ended up in a Quentin Tarantino movie yet is a mystery.
With the auditorium now packed, the Beach Boys’ California Girls heralds the arrival of the former Go-Go’s vocalist as she launches into the title track of Runaway Horses. Carlisle quickly kicks off her shoes, indicating that this will be an evening for dancing. Another hit is quickly rolled out as she launches into We Want The Same Thing, showing that her wonderful voice has lost none of its power over the years.
It’s easy to forget how strong the tracks on this album were, but we’re quickly reminded via a couple of lesser played tracks – ones which names like Bryan Adams and George Harrison have played on, credits which see Carlisle demanding applause from us. La Luna and Summer Rain ignites the first wave of rebellion from the crowd as entire sections get up for a dance, much to the chagrin of the more respectable types who just want to sit and watch. This continues and before we know it, everybody is up and dancing to Leave A Light On and Live Your Life Be Free.
After a very brief interlude, Carlisle and her band return to the stage with Big Scary Animal – after which we’re informed that it’s singalong time, and I think we know what that means. Indeed, it’s evident, the entire crowd bursting into song for Heaven Is A Place On Earth. A second encore of Shades Of Michaelangelo seems somewhat flat, from the crowd perspective at least, but everybody exits into the Cardiff rain having witnessed one of the true stars of the 1980s still showing fine form.
words CHRIS ANDREWS photos GARETH GRIFFITHS
