Hoseah kicked off the night, former contestant from Team George on The Voice, singing beautiful, soulful songs at an electric piano, sitting centre stage. He kept things interesting by including two covers, The Eagles song ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’ and Bob Marley’s ‘Is This Love?’.
Eurogliders kept things colourful as they performed a series of groovy pop-rock tunes such as ‘Without You’ and their hit song ‘Heaven (Must Be There)’, which welcomed an ecstatic audience singalong.
Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins performed a bunch of the trios’ classics including ‘King For A Day’ and ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’ with bright lights casting a glow across the arena. Saving the best til last, he finished with crowd favourite ‘Hold Me Now’.
Culture Club are real entertainers. Opener ‘Bitchface’ saw Boy George get audience members up on their feet, dancing straight away. Onstage were three back-up singers who showcased their amazing voices throughout the night, even performing solos at certain points. Moving through hits including ‘Church Of The Poison Mind’ and ‘It’s A Miracle’, George dedicated ‘I’ll Tumble 4 Ya’ to his niece Millie who came to watch him perform all the way from New Zealand before dedicating ‘Time (Clock Of The Heart)’ to all the new romantics in the room.
Culture Club never let fans down as George continued his funny jokes and banter between most songs. A quick outfit change later, and after performing a cover of the Rolling Stones song ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’, he danced around onstage, encouraging fans to get out of their comfort zones – “Dance like no one’s watching, dance like your heart’s never been broken, dress like you don’t give a damn.”
Everyone got up and danced during hit ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?’ a song that George says awarded him Culture Club’s only #1 song in Australia. With audience members shouting out the names of songs they wanted to hear, the band then went into ‘Victims’ which began with just George and the pianist onstage. It was a beautiful moment in what was otherwise a high-energy night.
Culture Club ended the show with signature song ‘Karma Chameleon’, which went down well with everyone in the audience. Then they performed two covers, the first Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’, performed with suitable purple lights lighting the stage. The second cover and last song of the night was classic dance anthem The Power Station’s ‘Get It On’. When the song ended, George ran off the stage quickly and the rest of the band followed shortly after.
Highlight: Dancing and singing along to my favourite songs.
Lowlight: Low crowd numbers.
Crowd Favourite: ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?’.
