Clipsal 500 Saturday concert @CBC Oval, Adelaide (19/03/11)

Wed 23rd Mar, 2011 in Gig Reviews

This year’s Clipsal 500 after-race concert on the Saturday night was definitely one that I had mixed feelings about. On the one hand, there was a really daggy element to the night. It wasn’t like the Friday night line-up which is traditionally the one with rising new bands and hot modern rock acts.

But on the other hand, I grew up in the 80s so the retro Countdown Spectacular style theme of the Saturday night had its appeal for me. Of the bands featured in the line-up, Pseudo Echo and The Uncanny X Men were the two that really took me back to the 80s and were the ones that I was most looking forward to.

The first act up was 80s girl-vocal band The Chantoozies. Back in their day, they had a couple of reasonable hits and looked pretty good too. More than twenty years later, the act doesn’t really work so well. Through their set of mostly covers, plus their own one or two hits to round it out, they mostly sounded like a hen’s night karaoke act. Singer/actress Ally Fowler was the only one of the girls who sounded like a professional singer, yet she looked quite bored with the whole routine.

The real entertainment of the night started with second act, Pseudo Echo. Their set was full of songs that provided part of the soundtrack to my high school days. The highlights would have been Love an Adventure and their massive 80s hit Funky Town. The crowd enjoyed the songs; the band played well…the only problem for me was that they didn’t really have the biggest presence to fill the large concert stage. This was one beautiful night and really required a huge rock act to fill up the stage and turn this perfect set-up into a party.

Thankfully, the next band, The Uncanny X Men were the ideal band to take the crowd from the warm afternoon into a perfect evening. They have always been a fun band as they can laugh at themselves and are almost a parody of the 80s without actually coming across as a joke. Frontman Brian Mannix was as entertaining as ever and the band’s songs were fun and timeless for the most part. The best part of this set was the bikini-clad girls throwing giant beach balls out into the crowd and the classic ballad 50 years which had most of the crowd singing along. This was the most fun set of the night for sure.

For me, the part of the line-up that I would have classed as the most cringe-worthy would have to be the iconic Leo Sayer. I felt almost embarrassed that I was about to see Leo Sayer on a perfectly good Saturday night. To me, Leo just reminds me of a little clown with his big hair and cheesy songs…not the coolest act to witness unless you’re over sixty. The funny thing was, Leo pretty much blew the other acts away within minutes. This little man has one fantastic voice. Compared with the other vocals up until this point, Leo appeared to be the first singer who could actually sing. Not only does Leo Sayer have a pitch perfect voice with a brilliant natural timbre to it, he was a natural at entertaining the crowd with his stage moves. Before this gig, I figured I knew a couple of Leo Sayer songs but it turned out I knew most of the set, and so did the crowd. Leo should certainly have been the headliner and last act of the night, as there was a happy mood in the air by the end of his set, and by the end of it, I had a whole new respect for Leo Sayer.

Last up was Ross Wilson and his 80s band Mondo Rock. These guys also sounded great. The band was tight, the vocals were fine, the only downside was that as the last act for a big post-race concert, they were a little bit mellow and the crowd only really responded with enthusiasm to a couple of the songs in the set. Their big 80s hit and set highlight Come Said the Boy is very indicative of their sound, nice and breezy. As soon as their set was over, the sky lit up with a huge fireworks show which heralded the end of the night and let everyone know it was time to leave.