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Nik Kershaw at the Liverpool O2

Monday, September 24th, 2012

Nik Kershaw and Band 02 Liverpool

Went to see Nik Kershaw my favourite 80s synth pop singer/songwriter perform at the O2 in Liverpool last Friday night.  It was an intimate gig which was excellent fun with Nik supported by a full band including guitar, percussion, drums and keyboards.

The audience seemed to really enjoy the whole thing.  This wasn’t a crowd full of people who’d come to see one or two hits from the 80s and then go off to the bar during everything else.  It was full of fans who knew all the words to all the songs and didn’t vanish to the bar on the first chord of anything from the last 20 years.

I was surprised how few women there were in the audience. Two ladies in front of me at the start of the night made up for the shortage with the rather obvious charades that I think indicated their surprise at how small Mr Kershaw is but how they would absolutely and utterly show him a very good time given the opportunity after 30 years of waiting 😉

Instead of support the band played two sets. The first consisted of a mix of old hits, like the Riddle, and stuff from more recent albums.  The second set was a live performance of the Human Racing album to celebrate 30 years since its release.

The band’s live sound was a lot more guitar heavy than the electro synth sound Nik was famous for in the 80s. Overall the effect was rockier.  I’d quite like to have a live album with these alternative versions.  Standing out from the set were really good versions of I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me, Have a Nice Life, These Tears, Wide Boy and a really good version of Drum Talk.

Overall an excellent night out.

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