This was an immersive show. Even in the cheap seats way up in the balcony we were relentlessly bombarded by lasers and strobes and a subliminal flashing message that spelled out "love" whenever you blinked (except for me it spelled out "evol" but perhaps I was blinking backwards.
Grace Jones was the highlight of Meltdown for me last year when she performed at the Disney cavalcade. This time out she had her own show with a full band and many changes of headwear. At one point it looked like she had a traffic cone on her head but as I said, we were right at the back.
I remember Grace Jones from alternative discos back in the 1980s. Oh how badly we danced to "Warm Leatherette" or "Pull Up To the Bumper". I forgot, or maybe I never ever realised that Grace has a real voice with a range that would shame Madonna for one. Beyond the menacing monotone, revisited for a beautifully bizarre new track about "man-eating" with a spectacular morphing monochrome video that served as tonight's prelude, she sang a splendid "La Vie En Rose" and then a snatch of "Amazing Grace" like a full-powered gospel singer.
If you have a favourite Grace Jones song she played it. She played everything I can remember her ever singing. Sting's finest moment "Demolition Man" was turned into a titanic Teutonic krautrocker. For "Love Is The Drug", Grace wore a spangled bowler hat and had a green laser firing on top of her head so the beam diffracted like an explosion of sapphires.
At the end, a stage invasion with lots of very camp dancing. A girl tried to put her arms around Grace and she snarled like a Bond villain, "touch me and I'll throw you off the motherfucking stage". And then smiled. And danced on.
