While the concert might have sputtered to a slow start, with the crowd taking a while to warm up to first act Human League’s performance, most in the audience were dancing and waving by the time the Sheffield group got to their signature song, ‘Together in Electric Dreams’.
Lead singer Phillip Oakley said it was the synth music band’s first performance in Singapore and that they were enjoying the crowd’s reaction to their music.
Muddy grounds and slippery grass aside, the audience was duly warmed up by the time Belinda Carlisle belted a string of songs which included her hits, ‘Circle in the Sand’, ‘Summer Rain’ and ‘Heaven is a Place on Earth’.
She looked like she barely aged a day, though it's been more than 20 years since the peak of her career in the 80's. Her star power was evident from the crowd's reaction to her performance and she carried the songs well.
The American songstress, who shot to the limelight with girl group The Go-Go's, even managed to elicit a jig from a member of the crew just outside the entrance of one of the white tents, erected around the Fort Canning concert area.
Members of the audience were anything but calm by the time closing act Bananarama hit the stage. They danced and waved to the tunes of the band's famous hit songs, ‘I Heard a Rumour’ and ‘Venus’.
Lead vocalists Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin topped off their performance with ‘Love in the First Degree’ and ‘Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye’. The audience’s response was so enthusiastic that the chorus of voices singing along seemed even louder than that of the band’s.
The biggest wave of nostalgia during Retrolicious did not come from the band’s performances however. It came when the Flying Dutchman went on stage during one of the intervals to present the Icon of the 80’s award to homegrown soccer star Fandi Ahmad.
The football legend might be used to receiving numerous accolades during the course of his successful career, but he still looked a little shy when he went onstage to collect his award.
In a nutshell, it seems like the concert achieved what it had set out to do and that was to bring the audience back to the euphoric era of the 1980’s.
By Desiree Pakiam.
Publichouse.sg will feature more pictures - by Shawn Byron Danker - from the concert on our Picture House section of this website soon.
