Harrogate
Billy Ocean and his band certainly brought the party to Harrogate, and oh boy was Harrogate ready. Between each song the chant of Billy, go on Billy, we love you Billy boomed across the theatre, to which he responded with "I love you more" and then dropped in a little promotion of how it's a title of a track on his new album.
Billy set was outstanding from start to finish. It's hard to believe he's stepped into his 70s, when he delivers pitch perfect song after song oozing energy, and pulling the crowd onto it's dancing feet as he sees fit. Occasionally dropping into a more relaxed song, giving everyone a moment to catch breath and rest their feet.
Billy mixed in the new and the old into his show, regardless of if the audience knew the song well, if the beat was uptempo most were going to be up dancing. Billy's performance was truly a delight throughout, and even though it's difficult to pull out the stand out moment, he took the roof off as soon as the cords of Red Light Spells Danger rang out.
The first part of the show ended on one of my favourites, and the song which first introduced me to him, When The Going Gets Tough The Tough Gets Going. Billy walked off to huge applause, and chants of Billy Billy Billy, which didn't stop until he took to the stage again. On return Billy sang One World off the his new album, introduced all of the band, and finished with Caribbean Queen. All left if party spirits with many seeming too want to keep the party going, still chanting Billy as they left.
Support came from Cutkelvins, who did an excellent job of warming up the audience, with a selection of Motown and Soul songs.
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