Calke Abbey 12.08.06
A personal report by Mel:
I was just having a look around on the homepage of Limahl.com, I discovered that Limahl was singing in an open air 80´s party on the grounds of Calke Abbey, which is just few miles south of Derby in the county of Derbyshire. As we were anyway at this time in England on holiday, ordering the concert tickets on the internet was no problem.
So, on the day of the 80´s party we drove up to Calke Abbey. We encountered a lot of traffic with a few traffic jams on the way, but arrived exactly on time as the gates to the grounds were just opening.
The first thing you find is the English custom of, if someone is standing in a queue then you stand behind him. No pushing or shoving to be the first at the gate, as at some German concerts. When you go to German concerts the gate controls are quite strict, in that your not allowed to take items such as glass bottles, knifes, ect.
So we were very astonished to see the people were carring picknick stuff, camping chairs and tables, even gazebos were being transported under their arms, and with tons of food just walking through the gate without anyone controling them.
It looked like a picknick concert, and we felt a bit out of place as we only had one backpack. I would expect any German organizers would through their hands in the air and just run around screeming if they would have to deal with all of this.
They had a D.J. that keeped the public amused with all sorts of CD´s and a music quiz. As the tape was removed, the UNION GAP were first band to came on stage for about a 45 minutes concert from the 60´s, which after they gave autographs and photos could be taken.
The D.J. was back again as the stage was beeing reset for the next group THE RUBETTS. They came on with white suits and sang their hits eg: (Suger baby love) which went down very well with the audience and the dance floor filled with shuffling feet.
So finaly the time had come for the
D.J. to introduce the fabulous Limahl, with the start of his apperance in KAJAGOOGOO song style. He was accompanied with a female saxophonist who made a great backup to Limahl´s voice. As next TOO SHY followed up with LOVE IS BLIND. After which Limahl talked about Nick Rhodes who, with some persistence from Limahl helped Kajagoogoo get their first record contract.
After thanking Nick he went on to sing SAVE A PRAYER from Duran Duran. So as next the females in the audience were asked by Limahl to do a virginal screem and the guys should stick their fingers in their ears, which my male escort found to be a very good piece of advice. After this came OOH TO BE AH followed up with, ONLY FOR LOVE followed by HANG ON NOW. Then came a song called GOD BLESS THE CHILD. Limahl carried on to talk about the 80´s over the years important events, one of the most important event was of course the birth of the song NEVER ENDING STORY sang in the unexpected extened version. The audience could then sing along with LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ALICE, and the last song from Limahl was OVER THE TOP. It seemed to be over far too quickly.
After a break with the D.J. keeping the public on the move once again, The Drifters came on stage as the last group playing all their hits.
The firework display that followed was very impressive, and was the end of a terrific evening with watching Limahl live in concert.
Mel
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