Live Review: Kim Wilde, Howard Jones

The greatest danger of the hits and memories retro tour is those involved maybe not realising they’re on a hits and memories retro tour. This is ‘we like your old stuff better than your new stuff’ taken to its conclusion, with both parties here having the back catalogues and showbiz smarts to know the deal.

Howard Jones was of an odd 1980s tangent where synth pop with some reggae accents was a reasonable thought, and Jones had the equally odd, nice guy eccentric charm to get away with it. And it’s hard to take offence to a chap who bounds out in a shiny baseball jacket with a shiny keytar, and plays it and the crowd with just enough cheese to get them sighing along to No One Is To Blame, then lift them to a final extended mix of Things Can Only Get Better. All in exactly an hour.

Even moreso, Kim Wilde has it in the genes. Dad Marty was a Cliff Richard contemporary in the early ‘60s, who went on to co-write songs with son Ricky for Kim to warble. They’re pop songs supreme. You’ll know at least one - as in the opening one-two of Chequered Love straight into the moodier View From A Bridge. Ricky’s still guitarist in her band thirty years on, along with shimmying niece Scarlett – who handily fills in the gaps when Aunty Kim might not hit those notes as she once have.

Somehow the “We really love Australia…” homilies seem genuine, as we get the encore payoff – starting with a fair howl through You Spin Me Round tributing the recently late Pete Burns, and her own still just terrific Kids In America. While that would have sent most of the crowd home happy to relieve the babysitters, the Wildes and Jones take a final respectful run at The Beach Boys’ towering God Only Knows with enough musicality in their four-part harmonies to not make a hash of it. Professional entertainment.