Sunday 31st Aug 2008

Strathclyde Country Park - Glasgow (Scotland)

Retrofest - with Kajagoogoo

This year's line-up included:
The Bangles, Boy George, 10CC, Paul Young, Kim Wilde, Howard Jones, Midge Ure, Nik Kershaw, Kajagoogoo with Limahl, Bjorn Again, The Blow Monkeys, The Christians, The Original Bucks Fizz, Peter Andre, Mari Wilson, The Bootleg Beatles, China Crisis.

Limahl Blog:
"Emotionally I think there was a big build-up to our first UK gig in 25 years at 'Retrofest' (Glasgow). We had no idea how the audience would react. Will they really care what we might sing or perform beyond the two biggest hits 'Too shy' & Neverending Story' ? 45 mins is a long time on-stage if you're not connecting with your audience !! The weather was warm with just a small amount of light, occasional rain - so it wasn't a total wash out. We arrived on-site about 3pm for our 5pm stage time. There was a lot of equipment stuff to take care of, especially as we didn't want to repeat the small technical hitch at our first reunion show in Denmark six weeks ago.

I got ready nice and early into my stage clothes then had a couple of glasses of wine - which is great for relaxing the nerves but bad for the memory ha ha (all those lyrics to remember). From the backstage area, I peaked out at the audience who seemed in good spirits after the Paul Young set.All our equipment was wheeled out by the tech guys and various sound tests were done - then it was our turn to deliver !!

We all had a big group hug backstage and wished each other well then walked out to a nice, cheery welcome from the crowd. Suddenly we were off and running. 'Interview rooms' first, lots of hands in the air waving back at us, mobile phone video recordings everywhere and cameras flashing. We were excited on-stage and the audience seemed to pick up on this. Back in 1983 the girls screaming would always drown out the music but now everyone was actually listening to it and dancing, nodding their heads, mouthing the lyrics, etc.

The applause got louder after each song and then suddenly it was the end of the show - it seemed to go so quickly. WOW !! We were all overjoyed and a little relieved that everything went so well. Thank you 'Retrofest' audience and all the crews/people behind the scenes for helping make it such a great event. Here's to the next one" Limahl ;-)

PS: In the 80's I seemed to just wizz around the world with not enough time to see anything properly - so now I ALWAYS try to make time for a little relaxation and culture. Hence, the next day in Glasgow I visited the fabulous Kelvingrove Museum (see pic) which was awesome. The outside AND inside were quite something !!