Boyzone
Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff Touring until Feb 16
The farewell tour, an epidemic among the pensioners of pop, is now spreading to stars half their age. A mere 25 years into their career, Boyzone have embarked on a tour entitled Thank You & Goodnight.
You can see why. Their second act, which began in 2008, has been a muted affair. Their former manager, Louis Walsh, is now more famous than most of the band. Their latest album has only gone silver (60,000 copies). But tonight there is plenty of gold, including, at one point, a vast gilt frame around the stage. It particularly suits Ronan Keating, who is, as ever, an oil painting.
The members of Boyzone enter the arena from above, on a platform, like window cleaners working on a skyscraper. Their outfits, by Julien Macdonald, are black with a blingy gold trim, but not identical. There’s a smart suit for Ronan, baggy shorts for Shane Lynch, a shirt with jeggings for Mikey Graham, and a tight zip top with a hint of sleaze for Keith Duffy.
Ronan Keating (above left) and Shane Lynch have been a part of Boyzone for over 20 years, and the band’s farewell tour is a lovely homage to many of their finest hits
Macdonald has put his finger on something about boy (or girl) bands: they have to operate both as a team and as individuals, to appeal to different kids. Boyzone have one matinée idol (Ronan), one Jack-the-Lad (Keith), one sensible type (Mikey), one class clown (Shane), and four showbiz pros.
They also had Stephen Gately, who played the little brother, until his sudden death from a heart condition in 2009. Like Paul McCartney playing songs in mid-gig for John and George, Boyzone pause to pay tribute to Stephen. They judge it just right, exuding fondness without getting too formal.
When they mention Stephen’s coming-out, the crowd cheers. It helps that the air is already thick with nostalgia, as thousands of grown women revisit their pre-teens. There are even a few screams.
These days, boy bands feel the need to make edgy R’n’B. Back in the early Nineties it was pop songs with melodies like hot chocolate. There was nothing fashionable about it: Boyzone’s best shots were borrowed from the Bee Gees (Words), Andrew Lloyd Webber (No Matter What) and The Osmonds (Love Me For A Reason).
In the cosiest of arenas, all this makes for the warmest of occasions. Boyzone, I suspect, will be back.
Trevor Horn Reimagines: The Eighties Out now
Rating: 
Trevor Horn’s latest album adds little to many of the biggest hits of the Eighties
Trevor Horn, legend though he is, is an unexpected pick to reimagine the Eighties, simply because he did so much to shape them. It’s like asking the cast of Friends to reimagine the Nineties.
Horn makes some surprising choices too. One is to stick to big hits, some of them still ringing in our heads, such as David Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes and Tears For Fears’ Everybody Wants To Rule The World. Even forceful singers – Seal and Robbie Williams respectively on those tracks – struggle to add much.
The other odd move is to use an orchestra, which tends to make for slabs of strings rather than the fireworks Horn is famous for. Pasting strings onto pop songs doesn’t necessarily make them more interesting, as albums by Roy Orbison are currently proving.
The only track to emerge transformed is Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark, on which some mournful horns combine with Gabrielle Aplin’s measured vocals to deepen the darkness. Otherwise, there’s more noise here than art.
THIS WEEK’S OTHER CD RELEASES
BY ADAM WOODS
Busted Half Way There Out Fri
Rating: 
You can see why Busted wanted to bury their cartoon pop-punk past with 2016’s serious, synthy Night Driver, but Half Way There feels like a more natural progression. Shipwrecked In Atlantis and Race To Mars deploy the bounce and buzzsaw guitars of old, but elsewhere, regretful nostalgic pieces turn an adult eye on the past, to touching effect
Rustin Man Drift Code Out Fri
Rating:
Former Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb’s second album as Rustin Man (after 2002’s Out Of Season collaboration with Portishead’s Beth Gibbons) has a timeless, charmed glow. His voice is a wistful, expressive one with shades of Robert Wyatt, while his music, compiled piecemeal over years, is warm, beautiful and quietly dramatic, likes some dust-covered vintage device that mysteriously still works
Nina Nesbitt Out Fri The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change
Rating: 
Millions know her name from the song on Ed Sheeran’s x album, but old Sheeran flame Nina Nesbitt has been quietly brewing her own career for years. Her second album is a diary of the exhausting business of being a young woman, with snappy single Loyal To Me just one of numerous crisply jaded pop-R&B ruminations on unreliable blokes