Go West, Nik Kershaw @ The Gov, Adelaide 5/3/2024
UK 80s music hit makers Go West and Nik Kershaw teamed up for a sold out show at The Gov to kick off their Australian tour Tuesday night. Being a school night didn’t deter the masses turning out to see two genuine big names from the 80s armed with loads of hits to treat fans to a great night of music.
This show challenged the usual way we would normally experience bands with one playing their set in full, short break then followed by the next artist. Both Go West and Nik Kershaw shared the same house band featuring some elite musicians and would play three or four songs then swapping over. The Gov had half the venue set up in cabaret mode and the other giving those who wanted to dance and shake it the option to do that.
Nik Kershaw was out first and it has been a minute since he was last here playing in 2015. The crowd took a while to get in to it and Nik opened with Come On Down followed by Wide Boy and the number twenty five from 1986 When A Heart Beats. Nik acknowledged it was great to be back in Adelaide handling over to Go West who pulled out the big guns early with Don’t Look Down, Black And Gold and Eye To Eye. Peter Cox is sounding as good as ever.
Kershaw returns to the stage saying to bring on the Dancing Girls which was followed by a song from which he described as his difficult third album Radio Musicola. OMG! The Riddle was awesome and brought the crowd in to it with a huge clap along. I could have left at this point having heard this one, absolute gem of a song. The flow of the show was such that if you went for drink or went missing in action for to long there’s every chance you might miss some of the hits.
Go West were in full flight playing Faithful, From Baltimore To Paris and SOS. Their music did all the heavy lifting and speaks for itself. With a short break to recharge both bands retreated back stage to return twenty minutes later for set two.
Things kicked up a gear with Kershaw starting with The Chosen One which was followed by a moment of reflection where he spoke of being a long way from home and was feeling sentimental thinking about his wife, jokingly saying that his wife hates the next one played with his response being he doesn’t have that many hits not to play it. That song was Don Quixote which was followed by his massive global hit Wouldn’t It Be Good. What was great to see was the mutual admiration for each other having known each other and toured together for quite some time. No egos, just both bands playing the hits to their adoring fans.
Go West were back with Tears Too Late and Cox referring to the soundtrack of his youth being Motown playing The Miracles cover of The Tracks of My Tears. To rev the crowd and get a spontaneous reaction he asked the crowd to pretend that Bon Jovi walked on stage serving as a good intro to Let Love Come.
Kershaw was back with The Skys The Limit followed by a song, The One And Only, written for someone else (Chesney Hawkes) and was a hit everywhere except Australia. Finishing on I Won’t Let The Song Go Down On Me was stellar and the audience reaction was huge. Go West returned powering their way to the end with Call Me and massive chart single We Close Our Eyes. Calling Kershaw out to play the final song of the evening in King Of Wishful Thinking was a perfect way to close out a solid two hours of music.
Live Review By Rob Lyon