Here are five of your live highlights in the next few months:
Boy George
Starting his tour in Edinburgh on Sunday 30th, and then visiting Manchester, Birmingham, Greenwich, Norwich, and Bristol, with more dates no doubt being announced soon.
You’ve already missed them if you’re in Romania or Portugal, but dates are coming up in Germany, Spain, Italy, the UK, and Croatia, with festival dates throughout the summer.
Another late one which I felt I had to catch up with. Salif Keita is an albino from Mali, and he’s recorded some extremely good music over the last few decades. Just a couple of weeks ago he released his latest album Talé, which features the production of one of Gotan Project, so you know it’s going to be good.
The annual British music industry bash had been growing in every way for a number of years. In 1988, it decided to improve itself by stopping being quite so corporate. In 1989, it changed its name to the BRIT Awards and nearly destroyed itself. After the unmitigated disaster of the 1989 ceremony, the 1990 awards switched to a different venue and was altogether a little more self-conscious.
The ceremony would sadly see the last public appearance of Freddie Mercury, but on a lighter note would also see Fine Young Cannibals justifiably return their awards in reaction to a video of Margaret Thatcher choosing her favourite pop song (How Much is That Little Doggie in the Window? although it sadly didn’t win any awards in 1990).
For now, though, it’s February 18th 1990, we’re at the Dominion Theatre in London, and Cathy McGowan out of The 1960s is your host for the evening.
Voted for by the listeners of the Simon Mayo Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 1, and presented by Simon Mayo. Nominees:
Band Aid II – Do They Know it’s Christmas
Jason Donovan – Sealed With a Kiss
Jason Donovan – Too Many Broken Hearts
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers – Swing the Mood
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers – That’s What I Like
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers – Lets Party
Lisa Stansfield – All Around the World
Marc Almond & Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart
Phil Collins – Another Day in Paradise
Simple Minds – Belfast Child
Sonia – You’ll Never Stop Me
Soul II Soul – Back to Life
Various Artists – Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey
An astonishing number of nominations, three of which were for Jive Bunny, but fortunately they didn’t manage to win. Unfortunately, um… well, watch the video here.
