[MUSIC ~ UK]
MARVEL STADIUM MELBOURNE, Sat 25 Feb, 2023.
Tonight, the streets of Melbourne look like this weekend’s Pride celebrations were attended exclusively by multi-coloured chickens. The streets are strewn with multi-coloured feathers that have malted from the thousands and thousands of bright feather boas wrapped around the legions of Harry Styles fans heading to Marvel stadium in Melbourne’s Docklands for the second of two sold out shows on his Love On Tour, tour.
There are 54,000 people here tonight and about 40,000 of them have boas (also if you were in an emergency and need a pink cowboy hat, you better pay the extra express shipping because there wouldn’t be an available one within 60km of the city). The crowd is dressed to impress, glitter and sparkles, dazzling outfits, often scant protection from the annoyingly persistent rain and cold. With kids from six to sixty and maybe 80/20 split in female/male attendees, they are ready for a Style-ish night out (see what I did there?).
Harry Styles may have had his start in a boy band, an origin often dismissed or scoffed at by ‘serious’ music people, but it often provides a fertile playground for members of boy/girl, and ‘manufactured’ acts to have individual members have credible solo careers afterwards. Robbie Williams (Take That), Justin Timberlake (N-Sync), Beyonce (Destinys Child) became some of the biggest names in pop music. One Direction were put together by Simon Cowell on the UK version of The X Factor and they became an ultra-massive global teen sensation. While some other members of One Direction have had success (Niall Horan, Zayne Malik), it is Styles who has become the uber dooper mega superstar.
Ten years ago, I was involved in a comedy show about music and at one point we were discussing the range of all-time great pop. I dropped One Direction and my on-stage co-star recoiled in disgust, “One Direction!?!?” Yes, I think they are the finest boy band since Five (cue much laughter). I may be a grown pants man, but inside my chest beats the heart of a fourteen-year-old girl! “Well…you should give that back!”. It was a ‘bit’, but I genuinely love both those acts. They made banger after banger, and I didn’t care if they wrote them or not. It’s A1, weapons grade, unashamed pop music. Is it calculated? Probably. Are they controlled by some evil Svengali? Probably. Is it going to change the world? Probably not. But is it bombastic pop, with catchy tunes, good vibes and bloody great fun (and usually a lot of choreography). Hell yes, it is. The US boybands tended towards the too schmaltzy for my tastes (although BSB, NKOTB and N’Sync all have their moments) but there is something about classic pop sensibility that attracts me to the British version.
The stadium is packed with people, including my own very excited nine-year-old offspring (at their very first concert) and the opening act is the brilliant Wet Leg. The indie band from the Isle of Wight have had a meteoric rise over the last year and seem completely at home in such a massive arena. The combination of timeless Indie tunes, catchy choruses, quirky videos and the delightful, unfettered joy both singer Rhian Teasdale and guitarist Hester Chambers exude is a breath of fresh air. Whether in interviews, accepting Brits and Grammy Awards, or on jumping around on stage – they seem genuinely delighted and excited to be doing their thing and they are having as much fun as we are. They are not the main draw tonight, but by the end of the night they had made enough new fans to have sold out of all their merch. When they start with Being In Love, it is very loud and my little one is a bit freaked out and overwhelmed, but they soon came round and were dancing and singing along. Every time there is a swear, they look at me with a look that says, ‘swear jar Daddy’. Next up is the smashing Wet Dream, a song containing the brilliant lyric “What makes you think you’re good enough to think about me when you’re touching yourself”. But I did wonder what a lot of the Mums of the littler kids here might be thinking at the time. It’s a brief set, just eight songs, all from their only album which came out in April last year. Supermarket and Oh No, take us to UR Mum, which is a stone-cold indie banger (but some more swears). In the middle of UR Mum, they invite us to join in with the longest and loudest scream and we do and it’s awesome. They finish up with the ecstatic Angelica and the already all-time indie favourite Chaise Lounge which has the whole stadium bopping away. I love their album and they were everything I could have hoped for to see live (if a bit short).
During the break, the PA played a string of songs designed for mass singalongs, including Daryl Braithwaite’s Horses and how wonderful to be belting out Bohemian Rhapsody with 50,000 new (and befeathered) friends. Every time a roadie walks across the stage, thousands scream their heads off.
The lights go down and the screams go up and Mr Styles arrives on stage in a western shirt, flared pants and a bit of stubble and the band cranks into Music For A Sushi Restaurant, a mid-paced Stevie Wonder-esque funky groove. The band is immaculate and one thing I am struck with right at the start is how much fun Harry looks like he is having up there. And the boy can sing! Both Golden and Adore You (Fine Line 2019) are ace pop songs and by pop, I mean, classic song-writing, emotional, melodic and kind of pure. There’s no lip syncing, no autotune, there’s no MC’s rapping away, there’s no modern production trickery and while I am not making direct comparisons, he comes from the school of Elton John, Ed Sheeran and George Michael traditional popsmithery. Some might say it’s not edgy or even anything new, but it’s great and Styles is excellent at this stuff and the number of people at these shows show his appeal.
The set is heavy with songs from last year’s Harry’s House album and people sing along with every word of Keep Driving, Matilda, Little Freak, Satellite, Cinema. During the whole show Harry makes great use of the ramps that go out into the audience giving everybody a closer up look and creating an intimacy. He dances with abandon, like really dances lost in the moment, which is so refreshing to me. It’s not choreographed – same steps every night, just leaping about being lost in the joy of the sound. Sporadically between songs he’ll break into “Heeeey Baby” and the audience responds with the traditional “WHOO HAA” from the Bruce Channel 1961 hit Hey Baby (via the 2000 remake by DJ Otzi). He does it several times and at one point says, “They told me you’d do that!”. It’s a lot of fun. Also, he gets us to sing Happy Birthday to somebody having their thirteenth birthday and encourages/forces somebody to propose to their girlfriend (congratulations). When he starts Treat People With Kindness the place goes bonkers and rightly so. My little one, is jumping up and down, we are all singing, it’s bloody glorious and then he segues into What Makes You Beautiful – perhaps One Direction’s most pop-tastic hit and people are losing their…poop. It’s his only concession to his former band, but it’s a cracker. Late Night Talking is also terrific but kind of a breather before the monster Watermelon Sugar. The main set ends with Love Of My Life, which hit me in the feels in a big way and I found myself tearing up and it’s simple beauty.
Baby, you were the love of my life,
Maybe you don’t know what’s lost til you find it,
It’s not what I wanted, to leave you behind,
Don’t know where you’ll land when you fly,
But baby, you were the love of my life.
After a short break he returns for the anthemic Sign of The Times which is pretty epic. The orchestration has that kind of You’re The Voice power to it. He does a great job of Australia’s unofficial national anthem Daryl Braithwaite’s (version of the Rickee Lee Jones song) Horses, inspiring more mass singing. At the bridge he picks up an Aussie flag and carries it aloft to delight of all. Surely, he has exhausted his catalogue you may be thinking. Think again oh ye of little faith, he smashes last year’s megahit As It Was into the stratosphere. One of my favourite songs from last year and classic pop bangeroony!
A lot of people start hitting the exits I guess trying to beat the traffic (fat chance the city was gridlocked, and it took us two full hours to get back to where we were staying), but those who stuck it out got Kiwi from his first album.
So overall, it was a belter. There are always issues with shows this big and I have a few of those. Some of the seats were literally behind the stage with no view of the stage at all (and no screens pointed their way) were sold for $200. Much of the merch had the name of the tour splashed all over but no image of Harry or even his name anywhere visible (the tee I got for mine only says Harry Styles inside the neck) but Love On Tour in colourful writing on the front. Said t-shirts were a staggering $65 a pop, posters were $40, etc. I am sure somebody will say ‘that’s standard now’ but for me it is excessive and abusive. Tickets were expensive but nobody seemed to mind. And at the end of the day it was a fantastic show and I am thrilled I got to share my little person’s first big concert with them, and that they are still buzzing about everything with great excitement.
5 stars
Ian Bell
WET LEG SET LIST:
Being In Love
Wet Dream
Supermarket
Oh No
UR Mum
Too Late Now
Angelica
Chaise Lounge
HARRY STYLES SETLIST:
Music For a Sushi Restaurant (Harry’s House 2022)
Golden (Fine Line 2019)
Adore You (Fine Line 2019)
Keep Driving (Harry’s House 2022)
Daylight (Harry’s House 2022)
Woman (Harry Styles 2017)
Matilda (Harry’s House 2022)
Little Freak (Harry’s House 2022)
Satellite (Harry’s House 2022)
Cinema (Harry’s House 2022)
Treat People With Kindness (Fine Line 2019)
What Make You Beautiful (One Direction cover)
Late Night Talking (Harry’s House 2022)
Watermelon Sugar (Fine Line 2019)
Love Of My Life (Harry’s House 2022)
Sign of The Times (Harry Styles 2017)
The Horses (Rickie Lee Jones cover – via Daryl Braithwaite)
As it Was (Harry’s House 2022)
Kiwi (Harry Styles 2017)
The Clothesline Rating...
Ian Bell
A belter!
