Madonna at the O2, London

Madonna has hit the road again, this time to promote her 'Rebel Heart' record, and last week she arrived at the O2 Arena in London, a venue she's played several times before.

I learned many years ago that it's worth seeing Madonna play live when you can - it's a relatively rare event and she gives good gig, with fab dancing, great lighting and sound and, of course, some fab songs. With Madonna it's easy to think of her as a 'personality' rather than as a musician but she's written some great songs over the years and she knows how to put them across. They're her songs and she can interpret them however she wants but always in a way to please the crowd. And she knows her audience.

M was on top form and actually talked to the audience far more than any other time I've seen her, which was nice. Chatting and joking and giving a heart-felt speech about it being World AIDS Day was very touching, when she almost went tearful.

She played lots of songs, old and new, and I loved the way she includes parts of old songs while performing the new ones - this worked really well throughout the set. She'd also built the runway to at least half way back in the auditorium so more people got to see her up close. She's also a consummate professional, with her dancers trained to perfection and all performing as part of  a family. They were an astonishing bunch, all over the stage but so together and always re-focusing again on Madonna.

Favourite songs were 'Burning Up', 'Devil Pray', 'True Blue', 'Like a Virgin' (obvs) and 'Who's That Girl'. She did a stonking version of 'Music' and a lovely version of 'Material Girl' with a solo, acoustic version of 'La Vie En Rose' which got an enormous applause. I must single out the lovely version of 'Rebel Heart' from the last album, one of my favourite M songs and so her.  I also loved the exerpts of 'Love Don't Live Here Anymore' and 'Justify My Love' included in other songs and, of course, 'Holiday' was the mandatory finale.

Love her or hate her, Madonna works hard and produces some amazing set pieces on stage and she's got an amazing back catalogue of 30 years to choose from for her stage sets. And, of course, she can fly - backwards. Hail Madonna and thank you for a great show!

Advent #9 - 'It Doesn't Often Snow At Christmas'

Back in 2009 those pesky Pet Shop Boys scheduled a big show at the the O2 Arena as the culmination of their 'Pandemonium' tour in the UK so we, naturally, had to go. It was just a few days before Christmas and the weather gods decided to dump a whole load of snow unexpectedly onto London which messed up the transport system. That's what Neil refers to in the introduction to the song - there was snow and slush and ice outside the arena as they played.

This is a great song and ought to be played a lot more. I always have to join in with the emphatic 'BING CROSBY!' line and love the memory of the dancing Christmas Trees in their red wellies. Great stuff. Watch the video and then download the song!

Pet Shop Boys at The O2 Arena

On Tuesday we went to see those Pet Shop Boys and their new 'Electric' show at the big barn that is the O2 Arena (it was called the North Greenwich Arena during the Olympics). The lads have a new album out in July (also called 'Electric') so it was a chance to hear some of the new music before it's released. A ever, they delivered a spectacular show and had an astonishing light show.

As is often the case at the O2 we were seated miles from the stage so saw little people moving around and it was easier to see the close ups on the video screens. Chris, of course, stood behind his keyboards while Neil traversed the stage, usually accompanied by dancers. The lack of sight was made up by the spectacle of the show and it seems like the lads have re-discovered lasers in a big way since we were treated to some spectacular visuals. The sound was excellent and the new songs have a banging beat going on that made my foot tap tap tap which is encouraging for the new album.

There were some odd sequences with dancers (and, at one point, PSB too) wearing horned head-dresses that I assume is something to do with the new album but it made little sense to me. Some of the other costumes were more fun, especially Chris coming on wearing a glitter-ball as a helmet and sending shards of light around the arena and Chris wearing a mirrored bowler hat that didn't work as well as Chris's. Both are obviously influenced by the mirrored top hat of Sir Noddy Holder!

While the new songs sound good it was the hits that got me (and most of the crowd) excited. We were treated to 'Opportunities', 'Suburbia', 'Integral' and 'Domino Dancing'. My favourites were 'Rent', 'Love, etc', 'It's A Sin', 'Always On My Mind' and a big version of 'Go West'. The encore was (of course) 'West End Girls' with a follow-up of 'Vocal', the new single.

It's a show designed to be filmed and released as a DVD. A lot of money has obviously gone into it so I expect a live album/DVD pack like for the 'Pandemonium' tour. I'll be disappointed if we don't get it!