Over the last few decades I’ve seen around 150 live music performances (mainly thanks to seeing multiple acts at UK summer festivals) but very, very few of them have involved pop groups or singers. Whilst I have seen the likes of Robbie Williams and All Saints as part of festival line-ups I’ve definitely never seen a pop act in their own solo show but that changed very recently when my wife and I saw Australia’s greatest export live in concert.

Whenever I go to Ariake in Koto ward (Tokyo) it is almost always in the name of tennis but this time it was to see the princess of pop who was back in Japan performing live for the first time since 2011. Until this concert date was announced last year, I was completely unaware of the Ariake Arena, and even thought it might be the actual tennis venue! It’s actually just an almighty forehand shot away from where the majority of Japan’s top tennis tournaments take place.

Ariake Arena on a rainy night!

Since her first appearance on Ramsay Street as the curly haired Charlene in Aussie TV soap ‘Neighbours‘ in 1987, she has never been too far from my radar whether it be hearing her songs on the radio, music videos on TV, magazine shoots, media interviews, newspaper gossip and so on. 40 years in the entertainment industry has rightfully cemented her status as a true icon of my generation.

On the other hand, my wife hasn’t grown up with Kylie’s music so wasn’t too aware of many songs. Needing to get her up to date with her vast back catalogue, I’ve been constantly playing her tunes at home for the last four months or so hoping that some of them would stick in her head ready for the big concert. I too needed to update myself with a few of her more recent hits, and reminding myself of those singles from her early years really was nostalgic as I’d not heard them for many, many years.

It was a rainy day on Wednesday (12th March) so about 10,000 fans arrived with umbrellas. They weren’t allowed to be taken into the venue though so were all left outside on the railings which was quite a sight in itself. As it wasn’t raining after the performance though most people just didn’t bother collecting theirs or trying to remember where they left them.

We were inside the arena about an hour before showtime at 7:15 pm and took our seats on the very back row. Getting tickets was through a lottery system but it wasn’t actually a sold-out show and there were quite a lot of empty seats in front of us. Four or five songs were rattled off in quick succession in just the first ten minutes before Kylie addressed the audience which she did a lot after that. Whether the Japanese actually understood what she was saying I don’t know but I’d guess most just got a feeling for what was said.

There seemed to be too many people around me who didn’t stand up and instead just watched passively. It’s not a classical music concert where you just sit there! I guess it’s each to their own though, and indeed my wife was one of those who was happy to just listen and be entertained without getting more involved.

Her first ever single in Australia (not the UK!) was ‘The Loco-Motion‘ and her rendition of that began on the main stage but ended up on the smaller one in the middle of the floor as she made her way (whilst singing) through the adoring crowds just like a boxer entering the ring at the start of a fight albeit minus the punching gestures!

This really offered a different perspective and was particularly great news for those of us in the cheap seats (but not actually cheap at 15,000 yen a seat!) who could see her a bit closer.

Many years ago I was humming ‘Turn It Into Love‘ and my wife said she knew that tune. She didn’t realise however that it was a cover and thought I was humming the successful Wink (1980s Japanese pop duo) version of the song from 1988 which was retitled ‘Ai ga Tomaranai (Turn It Into Love)‘. Due to that, it’s probably the most famous Kylie song in Japan. A request for songs from the audience was not too surprisingly greeted with calls for this song which she promptly sang with the aid of an accompanying guitarist and a cue-card featuring the lyrics!

The show was broken down into six parts with costume changes for each of them. Act 4 began with ‘Confide In Me‘ which I recall being something of a comeback single and a slight change in style, and that was way back in 1994!

There sure has been a renaissance or three since then to help keep her music contemporary, fresh and still relevant as was proved by the huge success of ‘Padam Padam‘ a couple of years ago.

Having been sick for a couple of weeks prior to this big event, my throat wasn’t in good enough condition to sing along which was a bit sad for me but maybe lucky for those around me!

The near two hour performance ended with many of her biggest hits, and my wife finally stood up when ‘Tension‘ was followed by ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head‘ (Kylie’s biggest ever hit), and indeed she left the venue absolutely bouncing which was far removed from her persona during much of the concert!

The vast majority of the live acts I’ve seen have been by indie/rock bands so I’m more familiar with seeing the lead singer just standing there and maybe playing a guitar too. Things like glitzy outfits, choreography, elaborate stage set-ups, costume changes, dancers and so on is something I’d only previously witnessed on screen. It’s all very different and I really grew an appreciation for the effort involved in putting on such a show.

Setlist: Act 1 – 1. Lights Camera Action; 2. In Your Eyes; 3. Get Outta My Way; 4. What Do I Have To Do?; 5. Come Into My World; 6. Good As Gone; 7. Spinning Around; Act 2 – 8. On A Night Like This; 9. Last Night I Dreamt I Fell In Love; 10. Better The Devil You Know; 11. Shocked; 12. Things We Do For Love; 13. The Loco-Motion; Act 3 – 14. Hold On To Now; 15. Turn It Into Love; 16. Where The Wild Roses Grow; 17. Say Something; 18. Supernova/Real Groove/Magic/Where Does The DJ Go?; Act 4 – 19. Confide In Me; 20. Slow; 21. Timebomb; 22. Edge Of Saturday Night; Act 5 –23. Tension; 24. Can’t Get You Out Of My Head; 25. All The Lovers; Encore –26. Padam Padam; 27. I Should Be So Lucky; 28. Love At First Sight.

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