I may go to a miniscule number of gigs these days (blame the shocking lack of public transport down here in sunny Devon) but it’s all about the quality not the quantity and tonight's gig, all the way across the south coast in Brighton, was a blinder. Kicking off with the wittily named Vanity Fairy (see what she did there?) we were treated to a brilliantly bonkers set fusing the vocal gymnastics of early Kate Bush with a super cool electro disc beat. Bonus points for the recycled promo material made from playing cards featuring either cats or...er...naked men in various states of 'excitement' too.
Altered Images have been on my and Mrs Baron’s live wish list for a looooooooooooooooong time so as this gig coincided with her 21st (ahem) birthday it was too good an opportunity to miss. Bouncing onstage like the past 40 years never happened Clare Grogan and the band delivered the perfect mix of old and new tracks (from this year’s awesome Mascara Streakz) with enough energy to power most of Western Europe (which could come in handy right now eh?). All the hits were performed to perfection from the decidedly anti-pop classic Dead Pop Stars through to the chiming sunshine pro-pop of I Could Be Happy and a personal favourite of mine, Don’t Talk To Me About Love. We also got some fine deeper cuts too including Insects (from first album Happy Birthday) which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Siouxsie and the Banshees album (perhaps unsurprising given that Steve Severin had a hand in the production of the original). What really impressed though were the new songs, released a mere 39 years after Altered Images’ last album. Let’s be honest now, Kylie would give her gold hot pants for title track Mascara Streakz, a sultry and sublime slice of techno dusted dance or the anthemic Glitter Ball.
There was a surprisingly emotional moment too during another newbie Your Life Is Mine, a touching 'I've got your back for the rest of my life' love letter from Clare to her daughter. She predicted that she wouldn’t make it through the song without shedding a tear or two and she was right bless ‘er. I suspect she wasn't the only one.
After leaving the stage to thoroughly well-deserved rapturous applause the band
returned for a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday that Clare very kindly
dedicated to Mrs Baron. No idea who asked her to do that…
Releasing a new album after such a long gap’s never an
easy trick to pull off and even though this version of Altered Images have seemingly
been playing together for a while tonight’s gig could have been a bit of a
resting on past glories affair, but nothing could be further from the truth. In
fact, as another highlight of the new album puts it, the whole evening was a truly
‘Beautiful Thing’.
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