A What's Good to Do Review
27 years ago, Jason Donovan released his Ten Good Reasons debut album, it was an amazing success going five times platinum and was one of the biggest selling albums of 1989. He sprung to fame in the Australian soap Neighbours and started his music career in 1988. Now 47 he has decided to take this album on tour, together with other hits from his back catalogue.
We went to see Jason in the Lyric theatre in the Lowry, which is a superb large and modern venue at Salford Quays. The audience, which was made up of mainly of 40 something women, were obviously really excited before the show began and as soon as Jason took to the stage they erupted, jumping to their feet and screaming like the teenagers that they had been 27 years earlier. We spent the whole night on our feet singing and dancing along to the hits and it took me right back to being a teenager in the 80’s!
Jason and his four piece band, started the first half of the show with some of his popular Stock Aitken and Waterman tracks before switching to a slower pace with Jason playing guitar for “Rhythm of the Rain” and then “Any Dream will Do” from the musical Joseph. Dressed all in black with a white stage set, Jason looked comfortable on stage, waving at and picking out members of the audience but seemed to struggle a little when talking to the audience, almost rambling at times. He had a great rapport with the audience and they absolutely loved him.
For the second half Jason had changed into a typically 80’s outfit of white jeans and jacket which was more how I remembered him. He proceeded to play the Ten Good Reasons album from start to finish ending with the hugely popular Especially for You, the duet that was originally sung with Kylie Minogue. Mark was hoping that Kylie might make a surprise appearance but predictably this wasn’t the case! My favourite track of the night was Rhythm of The Rain as there was no backing music, just the acoustic guitars, which meant you could just focus on Jason’s voice and the lovely words and tune.
The lighting effects worked well and whilst it was very loud the words were clear. With a full theatre there was a fantastic atmosphere and the audience were dancing throughout the whole show. It was obvious that there there are still a huge number of Jason Donovan fans and I'm sure the tour will be a huge success.
Disclaimer: We received free tickets for the purpose of this review but all words and opinions are our own.