The four women who had gone to the trouble of dressing in pirate costumes must have been distraught to find that Adam Ant, originally scheduled to headline this 1980s nostalgia-fest, had pulled out. Hadley, Norman and Keeble - aka the non-Kemp members of Spandau Ballet - were bumped up the bill to take his place, but where do you find a kilt at such short notice in Brighton? So the Antpeople stood solitarily in their knee breeches and Captain Hook hats, lending a certain ludicrous majesty to the proceedings. The odd pair of fingerless lace gloves apart, few others in the house went to such lengths to dress up. In fact, there was little of the office-party hysteria you normally associate with nostalgia tours, and certainly none of the inebriated writhing that reportedly accompanied Here and Now's 2001 debut. But then, how excited would you be by a reunited China Crisis, a matronly Toyah or the return of the only solo star in history named Howard?
Having said that, the seven acts are a social historian's goldmine, providing an authentic taste of the clashing genres that comprised pop during the Tory decade. For an extra point, as each churned through their biggest hits, you could link them to their 21st century descendants. For instance, you could argue that China Crisis's acoustic feyness made Belle & Sebastian possible, the screeching, semi-dressed Toyah was the blueprint for a certain G Halliwell, and mumsy, misty Belinda Carlisle, meet Celine Dion.
It was arguable too that Howard Jones didn't deserve the opprobrium that was heaped on him at the time. Years of conditioning make this hard to credit, but tonight he was an entertaining lesson in early electronica. Hadley, Norman and Keeble were okay, too, even without the eye-candy allure of Martin Kemp, but ABC have been dragging their reunited selves around the circuit for five years now, and it showed in the rushed delivery. You'll be unsurprised to hear that tickets for the Here and Now Christmas Party are already on sale.
At Newcastle Telewest Arena (0870 707 8000) on Wednesday, then touring.
