BILLY OCEAN + ANTHONIA EDWARDS – BRIGHTON CENTRE 25.3.23
The one and only Soul and Pop legend Billy Ocean really needs little to no introduction but, for the uninitiated, here’s a potted history.
He enjoyed his biggest chart success in the 1970s and ’80s, but after releasing four Top 20 hits (two of those songs got to No.2 in the UK charts) in 1976 and 1977, it took seven long years before he could enjoy the massive Transatlantic success that we know and love him for today.
Everyone must remember his 1985 UK No.1 hit ‘When The Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)’ from the film ‘The Jewel Of The Nile’? Even the stars, Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito appeared in the accompanying video as backing singers. As if that wasn’t enough proof of his influence on music, even Boyzone covered the song in question to celebrate the dawn of the Millennium (I rest my case M’lud).
In the same era, Billy Ocean won a Grammy Award for his song ‘Caribbean Queen’ and in 1987 was nominated for ‘Best British Male Artist’ at the Brit Awards. To this day, Billy has a massive cult following among both serious Soul fans and Pop Pickers far and wide. He is still recording and playing gigs as well as making regular TV appearances and his last album was released in the Pre-Covid year of 2020 (‘One World’).
I recently heard a few early songs by Billy Ocean at a Soul event in London which prompted the crowd to cheer and dance in the aisles. I realised right then that this talented guy with the silky voice and the ’80s defining pop hits was a bit of a phenomenon. Tonight is part of a Greatest Hits tour so we prepared ourselves for lots of familiar songs.
Me and the wife were rather tired as we had been to a local gig the night before and at this age it can get a little exhausting doing two consecutive nights in a row. We had been looking forward to seeing Mr Ocean tonight and as the old saying goes, ‘When The Going Gets Tough…’ (Sorry, I couldn’t resist).
Firstly tonight, we were to be treated to a performance by Anthonia Edwards who is a singer and nurse from Blackheath in London. She won the hearts of the nation and the main prize on hit TV show ‘The Voice UK’ recently in 2022 when she performed Billie Eilish’s song ‘When The Party’s Over’. Her mentor on said show was the one and only Tom Jones and after winning the show she got signed up promptly by Polydor Records and has since enjoyed big chart success with her cover of Justin Bieber’s ‘Anyone’ song.
Funnily enough, this was the first song she performed tonight accompanied by just a keyboard player and drummer which gave it all a bit of a minimal sound which worked to these ears. Most of her set consisted of cover versions which I’m not a great fan of, but the songs she picked tonight were very good choices. She explained to the audience her experiences on ‘The Word UK’ and said that so far it had all been “a cool ride”.
She covered ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ by The Bee Gees which I love and then performed a decent version of ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley. During this song, I noticed the drummer really started to let loose so he definitely had my attention during this number.
Anthonia told us that she had also duetted with her mentor, Tom Jones, on the James Brown classic ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s World’. She apologised that he couldn’t be there tonight, but treated us to her rendition of the song. She then went on to perform an original song that she had written and was currently recording for a release that was planned for the end of the year. Her last song was a cover of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ which went down an absolute storm with the audience (everyone loves a bit of Whitney). She said her goodbyes at 8pm and the crowd thanked her with much applause.
In the 30-minute interval before showtime the venue started to become busier and I even saw two women wearing ‘When The Going Gets Tough’ T-shirts designed in a ‘Frankie Says Relax’ style. There was also a person dancing in the aisles with a Billy Ocean face mask on, which could be seen as falling into Alan Partridge territory. People definitely seemed up for it tonight and the Saturday night vibes were shining through as the crowd sang along and danced to Bob Marley songs playing over the speakers.
All of a sudden the lights went down as the venue slowly filled up with dry ice and the sound of distant coughs. The band took their positions on the stage and Billy Ocean walked on from the side sporting his modern day trademark grey dreadlocks and looking resplendent in his white suit. The crowd went nuts as he launched into one of his newer songs called ‘One World’ and it was soon evident that Billy still had that voice that we all know him for.
He warmly greeted the Brighton audience and looked pleased to be here as he played the first of his classics, ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’ which got the all seated crowd to their feet predictably. It wasn’t long before someone shouted “We Love You Billy” followed by a recurring “Go On Billy!” which wore a bit thin after a while, but maybe there was an unofficial ‘Billy Ocean Moral Support’ group in attendance. He played a funky little number called ‘Nights (Feel Like Getting Down)’ which I will be sure to add to one of my future playlists followed by a ballad section which included ‘There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)’. Billy was in full on ‘Smooth’ mode at this point and the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Before we could get properly settled into our seats again, Billy went straight into his 80’s hit ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’ complete with Sax solo, which the crowd went wild to (we even saw a man in the audience performing his very own ‘Air Sax Solo’ no less).
The song I was particularly waiting for was next and that was ‘Red Light Spells Danger’ which is an absolute Northern Soul sounding ‘banger’ (as the youth would say). It slightly lacked the power and energy of the original recording, but it was great to see it performed live, complete with a breakdown singalong with the audience. Billy also totally got his ‘dance on’ during this song and proved to us that at 72 years old, he has still got the moves. A Bob Marley cover was next (‘No Woman, No Cry’) followed by some more of his greatest hits that I had forgotten he had recorded. We were approaching the end of Billy Ocean’s impressive 1 hour and 30 minute set so we knew we were getting closer to certain ’80s classics territory.
While all of this was going on, there was a bit of tension in the crowd close to where we were sitting. A certain group of people were standing up at every opportunity and people who were getting their view of Billy blocked were getting rather disgruntled. A bit of a slanging match ensued and it all got a bit tit for tat and abusive which I’ve seen happen a few times at these ‘bigger’ gigs. I tried to ignore this going on in my peripheral vision and got down to the matter at hand, which was to watch the legendary Billy Ocean perform his greatest hits on the big stage.
And before you knew it, the opening bars to ‘When The Going Gets Tough (The Tough Get Going)’ rang out and all was well in the world again. This song obviously went down a storm with the audience. We didn’t have DeVito et al on backing vocal duties tonight, but we did have Billy’s daughter (Cherie) performing very impressively in this role today. What a great way to finish tonight’s set.
A short break was had as the crowd stamped the floor in unison demanding more Billy. He came back onstage to introduce us to the band by way of a laid back ‘Scat’ singing number and then finished the night with a rousing rendition of ‘Caribbean Queen’ from his ’80s back catalogue. There was a lot of love in the room for Billy Ocean tonight and it was great to get to see him at last. He still has that silky smooth voice and can deliver an entertaining performance, which is inspiring from someone who is 72 years of age.
We vacated the building along with lots of happy fans but it was now time for us to ‘Get Outta Billy’s Dreams and Get Into My Car’ for the drive home along the seafront.
Billy Ocean setlist:
‘One World’
‘Love Really Hurts Without You’
‘Nights (Feel Like Getting Down’)
‘There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)’
‘No Woman, No Cry’ (Bob Marley & The Wailers cover)
‘Red Light Spells Danger’
‘The Colour Of Love’
‘Love Zone’
‘Mystery’
‘Suddenly’
‘Loverboy’
‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’
‘When The Going Gets Tough’
(encore)
‘Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run)’
