UK Singer/Songwriter Nik Kershaw, known for huge pop hits in the 80s like “Wouldn’t It Be Good” and “The Riddle” concluded his 1984 tour in London on Tuesday night at the O2 Empire in London. The capacity crowd was there to watch the pop icon perform his two hit albums from 1984, ‘Human Racing’ and ‘The Riddle.’ That’s right, he put out those two albums in the same year! Unthinkable by today’s standards. While this reviewer has been a fan since those early albums, Kershaw has appeared in the Prog arena on a few occasions, most notably performing “The Lamia” with Steve Hackett years ago, as well as recording with Tony Banks on Bank’s earlier solo albums.
But this evening was a celebration of the 40th anniversary of his two most successful albums. Kershaw was joined on stage by a stellar 4 piece band, who performed the classic songs to perfection. Seeing the songs performed live brought attention to the complexity of the music, especially the bass and drums, which are quite challenging parts for any proper musician. Kershaw, meanwhile, vocally sounds exactly the same as he did 40 years ago, hitting every note and doing so brilliantly. The show also featured a spectacular light show with loads of lasers.
The first set featured ‘The Riddle’ album with the highlights being the sing-along track “Wide Boy” and of course “The Riddle,” which closed out the set. After a 20 minute intermission, the band kicked into “Cloak and Dagger” from the ‘Human Racing’ album. From there, the band continued with more amazing songs such as “Bogart” and “Gone to Pieces” which proved surprisingly proggy in a live setting.
Of course, then came the biggest song of the night “Wouldn’t It Be Good” which has clearly stood the test of time and remains one of the great songs from the 80s. The set closed with another massive hit “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me.” The band returned for a 3 song encore which featured one more recent Kershaw classic “The Sky’s The Limit” before closing the night with the Chesney Hawkes hit that Kershaw composed “The One & Only.”
It was a night full of nostalgia and great music and lasers…lots of lasers, as only a show with music from the 80s should be.
Thanks to Nik Kershaw for these amazing songs and for keeping them alive all these years.
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