REVIEW: KYLIE AT CARDIFF MOTORPOINT ARENA (26/03/11)
It was tipped as one of the most expensive stage shows ever and Kylie’s Aphrodite Les Foiles tour was certainly pretty epic. The Pop Princess is up there with the likes of Michael Jackson, Madonna and P!nk when it comes to the show she puts on. Flanked by scores of semi naked athletic dancers the pint-sized songstress held her own in the meticulously choreographed set. She entered the stage on an elevated platform in the centre of a specially build Acropolis. Her make up and multi-million pound Dolce and Gabanna outfits were as eccentric as Elton John doing cabaret but failed to hide the fact she’s not as young as she used to be. Not that this mattered to the crowd, that was inevitably made up by hundreds of excitable gay guys, some perfectly preened 20-something women and the odd older couple and kid. This was the second night of the Cardiff leg of the tour which meant it was not sold out. This made it much easier to get close to the giant purpose built stage, though if you got too close you couldn’t see anything. Kylie’s a pro though, from all her years of touring she knows how to work that stage covering all areas so everyone feels involved in the show. And as she rattled through her hits old and new – from her current hits Aphrodite and All The Lovers to the early noughties hits Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, Love At First Site and Spinning Around and the earlier gems Confide In Me, Better The Devil You Know and her signature track The Loco-Motion this was a setlist to showcase her remarkable development over the last two decades or so. She even threw in a fabulous Eurythmics cover. Sadly there was no Manic Street Preachers collaboration (they helped her write some of the material on her 1997 album Impossible Princess and always wanted her for the female part in Little Baby Nothing) but it was well worth it to see the legend that is Kylie, surrounded by some circus-esque high wire moves, full blown water fountains and human drawn carriages. Support came from up-and-coming UK act The Ultra Girls. The down to earth four-piece from Leeds warmed the crowd up nicely for the headliner with their fun and fresh girl pop. It harked back to the early Girls Aloud days, before they all started taking themselves too seriously, and had echoes of S Club 7 – minus the boys – with the contemporary feel of The Saturdays. While they oozed girl power with their awesomely choreographed dance moves there was not even a sniff of the Spice Girls about them, a good thing in my books. That was so 1990s.
Words: Laura Williams
Photo: Aphrodite in NYC via Flickr
