By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Sunday 9 July, tour runs until 1 March 2024

SETLIST: Hotel (Suite 23); Love Invention; Believer; Digging Deeper; So Hard So Hot; Number 1; Impossible; Anymore; Ride A White Horse; SloFlo; The Beat Divine; Gatto Gelato; NeverStop; In Electric Blue; Rocket; Strict Machine; Fever (This Is The Real Thing)

It was very much the weekend to see music outdoors in London with friends seeing Blur at Wembley Stadium and Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park but we were more than happy with our choice.

• Read on for reasons including how to see Alison Goldfrapp on tour this year and into 2024 in London

We’re into the 2nd half of 2023 and we’re starting to think of what our gigs of the year have been so far and this 1 was definitely up there and better than when we saw Alison’s 1st solo gig at HERE at Outernet earlier this year.

Why? There’s a warmth to Alison tonight that we’ve never encountered before and she seems to be absolutely loving playing this fabulous 1st solo LP  The Love Invention, an album of the month for us in April and a real contender for collection of the year so far in 2023.

Were there to be an educational qualification in radiating warmth to an audience it might include what Alison does three-quarters of the way through this gig: get the crowd to raise their hands as 1 and chant after her ‘We are strong!’ ‘We are power!’ ‘You are loved!’

It looks a little ridiculous when written down but was a real moment for an act which has occasionally come across as imperious, aloof, other worldy and formidable yet uninvolving.

Fuelled doubtless by the debate around Madonna and Kylie’s Padam Padam, she also lets fly with the completely justified and relevent: ‘Never let age define you, it’s just bullshit!’

Her crowd is predominantly female, looks like it has been familiar with her work for the more than 2 decades she has been performing, is positively gay friendly and it is a sentiment which absolutely resonates.

We were critical of the HERE at Outernet gig for the inclusion of some of Goldfrapp the group’s best known songs but perhaps we’ve relaxed a little into the idea that an album and hits gig is probably the 1 the world wants to see from Alison right now.

This is our 1st outdoor gig of the season and we’re reminded of just what a magical spectacle it is to see 1 of our favourite bands/acts as the sun goes down on another summer day.

Thankfully the thunderstorms which had plagued Saturday do not feature here and we make a mental note to return sooner than the decade-plus it’s been since we last saw a band, Hurts, at this gorgeous and atmospheric central London courtyard.

Alison has just announced some more UK dates including 1 at Camden Roundhouse in 2024, ticket link below.

• Main picture via Facebook by Neil Durham courtesy Alison Goldfrapp Tickets
• Have you seen a show an Alison Goldfrapp show before? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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