‘Who remembers the 80s? Good – I don’t!” Cheerful, barefoot and sparkling in sequins, Belinda Carlisle is walking her infatuated audience down memory lane. Each song on this greatest hits tour comes with a timestamp and a story, and right now she’s introducing Mad About You, the 1986 single that transformed her from a member of record-breaking all-female rock band the Go-Go’s into a glossy solo pop star with the love songs to match. Tonight, as back then, Carlisle’s distinctive, shivering vibrato finds a streak of hedonism inside its lyrics about dizzy infatuation.
This show hits shuffle on the big singles and key album tracks that Carlisle and her smiley five-piece band have been touring for years, and it opens with real attack: the title track of 1989 album Runaway Horses is earthy and elemental, Carlisle blasting big rock “whoa-oh-oh”s over punchy drums and a juddering riff. She clearly delights in performance, camping it up and pretending to faint during I Get Weak, and swinging an imaginary lasso for the moody, loosely psychedelic Circles in the Sand. An uncertain start to La Luna briefly breaks the spell, but when Carlisle is in full power, it’s as if a wind-machine is always blowing in her direction.
Heaven Is a Place on Earth is an obvious finale, but it’s a credit to Carlisle and band that its magnitude doesn’t overshadow the rest of the set. We start slow, delaying that soaring, perfect chorus by cutting straight to the verse, and when Carlisle eventually roars that gravelly, pre-key change “I’m not afraid, anymore!” it sounds like the mantra to her varied, fearless musical career.
A stuffed encore doubles down on proving that there’s much more to Belinda than Heaven. Slinky, silly Big Scary Animal, the Go-Go’s don’t-kiss-and-tell Our Lips Are Sealed, co-written with the Specials’ Terry Hall, and the rock’n’roll, heartfelt Live Your Life Be Free make a decent calling card for a Glastonbury legends slot. In August, she released a covers album and tonight closes with The Air That I Breathe, popularised by the Hollies – but it’s not needed. Carlisle’s own voice, and legacy, are fascinating enough.
• At Apollo, London, on 12 September, and Apollo, Manchester, on 13 September
