Go!! Show Gold | Crown Theatre | August 4 | ★★★★★
Five years ago artists who regularly appeared on sixties TV show ‘Go!! Show’ staged a reunion concert. Since then they’ve repeated the performance with a changing line up of artists. This year the show came to Perth for the first time.
Featuring an astoundingly good selection of Australian pop stars of the 1960’s, whose careers carried over into the ’70s and ’80s, this was a sensational showcase of talent. Playing to an enthusiastic older audience, this was a magical show, let’s hope they keep Perth on their tour schedule for 2017.
A series of back and white video clips from the ’60s got the crowd in the mood for the journey back in time. They began playing an opening number from the ‘Go!! Show’ – a hipster Johnny Young singing his version of The Strangeloves’ ‘Cara-Lyn’.
The band on stage began to play the same song and a 69 year old Young took to the stage, making quite an entrance with the crowd clapping in time with the tune.
Young was the host for the evening and played some of his own hit songs, quickly launching into ‘Step Back’. Throughout the night many of the artists would perform their hit songs which Young had written but he also delivered some captivating performances of his own.
During the night he delivered an impromptu rendition of ‘The Real Thing’, the song he wrote for Russell Morris, and Young also conducted a sing-a-long with the entire audience of ‘All My Loving’ – giving everyone a ‘Young Talent Time’ moment.
Ronnie Burns performed a number of his tunes including his big hit ‘Smiley’. The singer joked about the age of the audience, a theme that would repeated throughout the night. Doug Parkinson took to the stage his booming voice delivering ‘Dear Prudence’ and several other numbers.
There was a burst of excitement as they began to play Coleen Hewett’s repetitive vocals from ‘Day by Day’, the former Australian Queen of Pop made a big entrance through a side door and worked her way up on to the stage.
Hewett sang ‘Superstar’, a song she recorded before the Carpenters scored a big hit with it. She also delivered her huge hit ‘Dreaming My Dreams With You’ and her much acclaimed rendition of ‘Wing Beneath My Wings’. Finally she returned to ‘Day by Day’ her powerful vocals blowing the audience away.
The second half of the show opened up with singer Mike Brady delivering his big selling anthem, ‘Up There Cazaly’. The singer then joined the band he was a part of in the 1960s – MPD Lyd.
The band features entertaining drummer Danny Finley who got a lot of laughs with his drumstick juggling and outrageous costume. Replacing original band member Pete Watson, who passed away many years ago, was William Hewitt – who is the son of Finley and Coleen Hewett.
MPD Ltd’s renditions of ‘Lonely Boy’ and ‘Little Boy Sad’ were spectacular, and I was devastated to discover that their back catalog is not available on iTunes.
Former Tv host and pop star Ross D Wylie walked on to the stage with aid of crutches, he suffered polio as a child and now needs some aid to walk. His voice was still incredibly powerful and he delivered his best known song ‘The Star’ as well as his hit ‘Funny Man’.
Glenn Shorrock was a late edition to the line up, stepping in for Max Merritt who had to pull out due to illness. The front man for The Little River Band appeared in a stylish suit and tipped hat and performed songs from his time in The Twighlights and Axiom. Shorrock worked his way through ‘Needle in a Haystack’ and ‘Cathy Come Home’ before performing the Axion hit ‘A Little Ray of Sunshine’.
You really wished that Shorrock had added one tune from his time in the Little River Band, but this was a packed bill with a lot of artists waiting in the wings.
Dinah Lee was a dynamo performing her big hit ‘Don’t You Know Yochamo’, and her successful cover of Jackie Wilson’s ‘Reet Petite’.
Finally Normie Rowe took to the stage, the former heart throb delivering a knock out set that included ‘Que Sera Sera’, ‘Shakin’ All Over’ and ‘It Aint Necessarily So’.
Finally the performers gathered on stage for a rousing rendition of ‘Mustang Sally’. This was a show filled with mountains of fun, let’s hope they keep coming back.
Graeme Watson
