So then….Aqua at G-A-Y last weekend!
Absolutely amazing!
G-A-Y is legendary when it comes to getting pop acts to London for performances. Madonna, Mariah, Britney, Christina, Kylie etc etc etc – but nonetheless, Aqua were an impressive bag, even for G-A-Y. It was their first ever live show in the UK, which is quite surprising given the amount of records they sold here in the late nineties. And sure enough, lots of people came out in force on Saturday night, declaring that Aqua had been their favourite band when they were younger, and mouthing along the words to album tracks.
They were rewarded too, with a fifteen track set! Yes – FIFTEEN!!! We weren’t really sure what to expect from the Aqua show – we assumed that it’d be a five song affair. Vocals varying between live and mimed, and performed to a backing CD. And we were actually really looking forward to that as it was! So obviously we, and a lot of other fans, left the show very happy indeed. They brought along a full band with them; backing singers, drums, keyboards, guitars, bass – far more than you’d have expected them to need. And they performed a whole concert’s worth of material completely live.
Peppered amongst the songs was great audience interaction, gratitude from the band at the large amount of fans that had showed up, surprise and hilarity at the fact that a lot of people were singing along to every word, offering their microphones to lucky audience members to sing some of their lyrics (we did a line of ‘Happy Boys & Girls), Lene introducing everyone to her parents who were at the side of the stage, cooling down the audience by throwing (and spitting!) water at them, and various suggestive gestures from all concerned! Just a band who were having a lot of fun and genuinely enjoying being back together again and performing.
As for the songs themselves, well it was a great mix of their singles, their album tracks, and new songs. Here’s the full setlist.
Back To The 80’s
Cartoon Heroes
My Oh My
Dr Jones
Live Fast Die Young
Freaky Friday
Turn Back Time
My Mamma Said
Shakin Stevens
Lollipop
Happy Boys And Girls
Roses Are Red
Barbie Girl
Goodbye To The Circus
Around The World
Hearing the bars of ‘Goodbye To The Circus’ was particularly magical for some reason.
It was bliss. Thank God that Aqua are working on a new album to be released next year. And when they tour it, we’re definitely going to travel to Scandinavia to catch one of the shows. We say travel, because it’s unlikely they’ll come back to the UK – neither the single or the album are doing particularly well over here, which is a huge shame. But we thank Aqua wholeheartedly for coming over this time and attempting to promote them.
