THERE were some mighty incongruous images during Kylie's one-night-only Kiss Me Once Sydney show last night.
For starters, the giant red lips were everywhere – on the dancers' heads as a type of burlesque fascinator, on the giant screen backdrop looming one or two storeys high (awesome when a gigantic Kylie moved up to the screen and kissed it, leaving a huge lipstick imprint) and in the form of a luscious red couch at the start where Kyles lounged and squirmed, like Barbarella on the orgasmatron.
All these lips were echoing the art on the Kiss Me Once album but, for all the world, it was impossible not to dissociate them from the iconic Rocky Horror lips. Especially when Kyles simpered and strutted and flounced in garments that would do Dr Frank-N-Furter proud.
They weren't the only Seventies/Eighties references.
The night started with a guest spot by Giorgio Moroder, the brilliant Italian record producer/composer/performer, responsible for igniting the career of disco queen Donna Summer (Bad Girls, Love to Love You Baby) and the fabulous, eerie synth scores of Midnight Express (1978), Scarface (1983), Flashdance (1983) and American Gigolo (1980). So we had clips of Summer's Bad Girls and 31-year-old Richard Gere as the Gigolo. Moroder worked with Kylie on this year's Right Here, Right Now.
It was odd, but wonderful, to see this 74-year-old with flowing white hair energetically DJing and working up the audience into a real disco frenzy. Everyone was in awe.
After Moroder's opening set and a brief interval came the intro: "We wanna welcome you to the biggest disco in town!"
And Kyles emerged to thunderous applause and launched headlong into "You kiss me, I'm falling, Can you hear me calling, You touch me, I want you, Feels like I've always known you . . . "
And it did feel like we'd always known her. Amid the high-energy, beautifully choreographed set pieces and rousing pop anthems, here was a diva totally in touch with her audience. There was none of the superiority of Cher (though Kyles did steal one of her head-dresses) and none of the name-dropping of Bette. The girl-next-door from Ramsay Street was just dropping in for a dance and, boy, was she ready to party!
The setlist was dotted with highlights from Kiss me Once but there were more crowd favourites than new tracks.
Then there were the oldies from Kyles' early Stock-Aitken-Waterman days and charming stories of those hungry days before them; "Yeah, I made Locomotion as a demo. Didn't even have a record company! And here we are today!" (Cue thunderous applause.)
And videos from those heady days took us all back there again, whether we were around the first time or not.
But this was grown-up Kylie. Sexercise was great fun and never have handlebars on an exercise bike looked so phallic.
Video of opening night in Liverpool, England here
And the laser lightshow was out of this world. Fingers of coloured lights touched everyone at some stage, as we all got mesmerised by the dazzling pulses of lights of every colour dancing across the arena. "It's a veritable lasergasm, folks!" she enthused.
And on and on it went. Whole blocks of people were up and dancing in front of their seats, never to sit down for the rest of the night. Arms either side of me were punching the air or swaying to the mood . . .
The crowd would have been 80 per cent gay. Maybe 90. Gay audiences have taken Kylie to heart. And the honour is reciprocated.
There was no preaching. Just a celebration and acceptance. And one special song, All the Lovers, which pulled at the heartstrings as the screen filled with a map of countries around the world and symbols for male-male, male-female and female-female love playing across it. We knew what she was getting at, and it was impossible not to love her even more for it.
And her encore echoed with hope: "When I got my back up against the wall, Don't need no one to rescue me, 'Cause I ain't waiting up for no miracle, Yeah tonight I'm running free, Into the blue, into the blue, With nothing to lose, Into the blue."
She hit the stage at 8.45pm and worked her heart out right through to 10.53pm, not letting up for a moment. She's one of the hardest workers in the business.
We all left humming: "On a night like this, I wanna stay forever, stay forever, On a night like this, Just wanna be together . . ." ❏
■ Read Ian's other interviews and reviews:
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