Bonnie Tyler’s High-Energy Night in Aalborg

It’s a …
HEARTACHE!
Nothing but a …
HEARTACHE!

Bonnie Tyler knows exactly how to put together 85 minutes of tight, high-energy pop’n roll. And why not?

Gaynor Sullivan (her maiden name) from Wales has been very actively singing and touring and recording since 1969. She was here, there and everywhere – not least on all kinds of pop charts – from the late 70’s and quite a bit into the 80’s. Later on, not quite so much.

Her concerts, now that she is turned 74, is build on first and foremost nostalgia, thanks to at least three very strong highlights from a long career. Not only her signature song, “It’s A Heartache” from 1977 – her first really great hit after her voice had turned hoarse after a throat operation – but also “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and the last of the two encores, the heavily rumbling “Holding Out for A Hero” from the soundtrack of the movie “Footloose”.

These three songs were the best of the best among all 15, starting with a quietly interesting cover of “Have You Ever Seen The Rain” (from Creedence Clearwater Revival) as a great warm-up for things to come.

Some of Bonnie Tyler’s songs are significantly stronger than others; a couple of them just seemed to pass by – until a strong, really heartfelt version of “Simply The Best” as a warm tribute to a beloved colleague, the late Tina Turner. And a great vehicle for Tyler’s own raw energy.

Bonnie Tyler’s strength is also her weakness – nobody sings quite like her, thanks to her very recognisable husky voice, but this voice has only turned more husky, as the years have gone by, and somewhere along the way, some nuances have gone lost, and at times her voice tends to sound strained. As if some of the lyrics is somewhat of a fight for here. And in some of the songs, the voice even seemed to “drown” in the rather heavy sound of the orchestra.

Oh, by the way, the musicians were great, very lively, very on the spot – first and foremost, the guitar player Matt Prior, with several fine solos along the way. They must have played and sung most of these songs thousands of times, but no traceable weakness.

An evening with Bonnie Tyler is a bumpy walk down Memory Lane of a fine string of great songs, played in good spirit and sung with the heart, but also with some limits due to the aforementioned quite strained sound.

All the way, she is very present, very at eye level of the audience and very eager to tell short stories from her career (shame that a great part of the audience is so preoccupied with talking together instead of listening, even when Tyler is talking).

Bonnie Tyler at Royal Stage in Skraaen in Aalborg in Denmark Saturday the 28th of February.

SETLIST:

Have You Ever Seen The Rain? (Creedence Clearwater Revival cover)
Hide Your Heart (Kiss cover)
Lost in France
To Love Somebody (Bee Gees cover)
The Best is Yet to Come
It’s a Heartache
Notes from America
Straight From the Heart (Bryan Adams cover)
Yes I Can
Flat on the Floor (Carrie Underwood cover)
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Faster Than the Speed of Night
Simply the Best

Encore:

Turtle Blues (Big Brother & The Holding Company)
Holding Out for a Hero