T'Pau - Saturday 23rd November - Islington Assembly Hall

The first central London T'Pau show for many years. We'd even managed to coax some friends along to this based on the Burgess Hill show earlier in the year. A quick check on stage times before going for a beer revealed 3 support bands. This started alarm bells ringing - they are bound to overrun and there is a strict 11pm curfew. No matter, T'Pau will be on at 9:15 we are told. 

Post beer, we return for 9:00pm. They are running late - what a surprise!  A band called Blue Zoo who seemed to think they were famous in the 80's (no, me neither!) dragged on for a while meaning Carol and the boys didn't appear until 9:50. This led to a rushed set - no doubt missing out a few songs - with no break for an encore or between song chat. The extra support acts are a false economy - no-one wants to see them, so there's no better value for money and it just delays and detracts from the main act.

Still, the brief(er) T'Pau set was excellent - vocals top notch (not really any need for the young backing vocalist who had been drafted in) and a few setlist changes from earlier in the tour. Shamefully, I'm not fully up to speed on all the tracks from Rage or The Promise, so there were a couple I only vaguely recognised. I was slight disappointed not to hear 'Time Will Tell', but other than that all was good. A live CD of the performance is promised - I will be making a purchase!

If anyone knows the definitive setlist then please let me know.