Last night I was very fortunate to be able to see Cyndi Lauper at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Wow. What a performer she is.
First things first though – normally support acts are a little disappointing, and I wonder whether artists choose fairly mediocre support to make them look good, but not this time. The audience were introduced to Jessie J, a funky, quirky Essex girl who has the voice of an angel. Her Myspace page has some videos of some of her tracks but unfortunately not my favourite of the night, ‘Technology’, where she talks about the dissapointment usually involved in making ‘virtual’ relationships using Facebook and the like. Great fun!
Then it was time for the incomparable Cyndi Lauper who, although, shes rather older these days, is still breathtaking. She still has all of the wildness and anarchic qualities that she has always had, and gave an incredible performance on the night. We got lots of tracks from the new album, Bring Ya To The Brink, including my favourites, ‘Echo‘ and ‘Rain on Me‘ as well as lots of classics from her back catalogue. We had to wait until the encores for ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ (which Jessie joined in with) and also ‘True Colors’, which she performed on an old zither. Fortunately because we were very close to the stage I got some amazing photographs – looking through them, I’m sure you’ll be able to imagine what the gig was like – you can find the rest here.