St David's Hall, Cardiff - 26/06/2019
Two stalwarts of the Eighties hit the boards at St David's Hall with both acts proving that there's still plenty of life left and music to share from two of era's most popular performers.
First up were China Crisis, still writing great tunes today with their last offering being 2015's Autumn in the Neighbourhood, showing that they for one and not satisfied to just rest on their laurels.
Always a fun band to see and quite regular visitors to the area, their wit and good humour is always infectious giving good natured stick to late comers in a 40 minute set.
Opening with the excellent “Black Man Ray” followed swiftly by “Arizona Sky” and the lovely “Christian” all songs of real quality and greeted with hearty response from an enthusiastic audience, bringing their sadly short set to conclusion with “Wishful Thinking.”
Headlining the evening was the almost local boy Howard Jones, who spent much of his early youth growing up in Rhiwbina, Cardiff .
One of the brightest stars of the synth-pop Eighties, Jones scored a top five hit with his first release “New Song” following it up with a string of hits throughout the decade topped by appearance at Live Aid and Jones recalls to his audience being in a dressing room rehearsing under the gaze of rock giants David Bowie and The Who's Pete Townshend.
With a punchy, powerful band in tow, his songs took on a harder edge and whilst often criticised in the past for his cute and rather twee pop tunes he certainly set the controls to maximum and proved he could rock with the best of them.
Songs like “Like to Get to Know You Well” and “New Song” sounded fresh whilst Jones swapped effortlessly from full band to solo performer with old songs given new life with powerful and imaginative versions, helped by what was a quite stunning light show.
It was a quite delightful evening of nostalgia with some updated classics and a sprinkling of new tunes in both sets that had the crowd singing all their way home.
Tony Woolway
