Nik Kershaw - Get's us all warmed up for Christmas!

*****

Nik Kershaw is simple brilliant!

Nik Kershaw ***** has been invited today to be the special guest support act at Kim Wilde's Christmas party at the London, Shepherds Bush o2 Empire, and tonight and tonight like the other two Christmas shows that he played with Kim he will be using her backing band which includes Nick Beggs (Ex-KajaGooGoo / Steve Hackett). I have been a massive Nik Kershaw fan since I was a kid and have been to a lot of his performances and straight away I get the feel this is going to be a good one. They have his name projected behind him in an 80's style font that looks really cool and the whole set up of the stage looks really cool.

Today Nik's set is really short so will consist of just hit songs, actually the same set as when he headlined Hyde Park for the Olympic celebrations. Your just thinking why is Nik supporting Kim Wilde when he headlined this venue not too long ago and has a DVD out to prove it, which I have bought and really love. Opening up with the single 'Wide Boy' you can see a new determination behind Nik who's eyes are hidden by tinted blue glasses, but behind these 'Dark Glasses' is a man with so many hit singles that he could build his own hits chart with. Since he has met his wonderful wife Sarah and had his new baby boy the live shows have been getting a lot better and their just seems to be a new life in him.

He also works really well with Kim Wilde's and looks like he has been playing with them for years, I know some of them are personal friends of his so must be nice to play with different people. He storms through a great version of his hit single 'The Riddle' with some confidence and plays the guitar parts with ease without really looking. Their are a few die hard Nik Kershaw fans in the audience tonight but I don't think most of the Kim Wilde fans realise that Nik wrote the number one smash 'The One and Only' for Chesney Hawkes. So when he starts playing it they look a little surprised. 

Nik though really wants to promote his new material and why not 'Ei8ht' was a brilliant album, spurned on by the first single 'The Sky's the Limit' that became a little bit of an anthem during the Olympics in Great Britain. This song has a really nice melody and I think the crowd picked up on it really well today so it goes down quite well for a new song, I think the next Nik Kershaw album is going to launch him back again into the mainstream, because you can't keep great music like this hidden forever!!! great songs speak for themselves.

Everyone in the World should know the last two tracks in Nik's set 'Wouldn't it be Good' and 'I won't let the sun go down on Me' because throughout the 80's they were played non stop and they seem to be present on any 80's compilation CD that has been released. They both don't disappoint and are really big sounding and are better than he has played them in a long time, so when his set finishes everyone still wants more. If you don't know Nik Kershaw your essential purchase is 'Human Racing' but you can't go wrong with any of his album and 'Ei8ht' is a good example of his later material. I really enjoyed this set and it made me want to go and see him even more. 

Nik Kershaw - Setlist
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Wide Boy 
The Riddle
The One and Only
The Sky's the Limit
Wouldn't it be Good
I won't let the sun go down on Me

Review and Photo's by Dan Devour

Check Out! the Video for 'The Sky's the Limit' Below...