A Wonder Summer's Night - Stevie Wonder Live Review @ The O2 (02 - Millennium Dome) (London) - 01 Oct 2008

Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder

Live Review

This just so happened to be my second Stevie Wonder O2 gig in as many months - I went to the Sept 12th gig as well, so I was interested in seeing (hearing) whether it would be any different, so you lucky readers will get the benefit of a little comparing and contrasting.

I'm presuming that most of the other members of the audience on the night were seeing him for the first time this year, hence the rapturous applause as a down-tempo beatbox comes over the PA, enter Stevie stage left beatboxing, with daughter Aisha helping him onto the stage. The percussion section strikes up (and yes, I believe that one drummer and two percussionists can certainly be deemed the "percussion section"!) allowing Stevie to grab the harmonica, plumbing the low notes of a slow-groove melody. Can't say that I knew the number, but it was pleasant enough and segued into another song - vaguely familiar, but can't place it. So, now you're wondering (no pun) what kind of Stevie fan this is that goes to two gigs in two months, but can't name his opening numbers.... Hmm... well, I have most of his output, including the 60s Motown stuff (vinyl), his 70s heyday, a few 80s disks and the sparse output of the 90s and noughties (two disks)... so there!

It's fair to say he had a massive band, comprising the afore-mentioned percussionists, two guitarists, bass, sax, trumpet, four backing singers and three on keys (including Mr Wonder, of course). To say that the band were tight is like saying the Queen Mary 2 is a big boat....

Then come the familiar opening chords of Master Blaster, greeted by much wooing, clapping and body swaying - nice! Stevie currently has his Barack Obama-promoting groove on, and managed (in the first gig) to fit the line "Barack Obama - will be pres-ident" into the vocal line - an awkard fit, but greeted with cheers. I was amused to hear it, and wondered whether he'd repeat the line, and sure enough he does - similar response from the audience.

So far, so similar to last month's gig, the one difference being less banter from Stevie, and no pauses between songs - making for a much better gig. The September gig suffered from too much banter, where he seemed to expect to be able to converse with the 20,000-strong audience... which, strangely enough didn't work - not that it could have stopped the couple behind me trying. Anyway, lesson learned, I believe.

I'm pretty sure that this gig was being filmed for a forthcoming live release, as not only were there two cameramen on stage, but there were two remote cameras flanking the stage, and two cameramen filming the audience. True, some of this footage was being beamed to the two big screens either side of the stage, but compare this to the last gig where there was just one cameraman and one mic-mounted camera. The lighting on the night also seemed better than the previous gig.

'Knocks me off my feet' brought with it a slower groove, cue: audience sitting down, but another 'Hotter than July' track 'All I do' got them back on their feet, and the dirty funk of 'Higher Ground' made sure the seats were not going to be kept warm for too long, either.

About half way through, out comes the vocoder - now this bit didn't work too well at the last gig, but tonight he really was on form, keeping the crowd on-side by doing some proper "English" songs: 'Hello, Goodbye', then a reggae-infused 'London Bridge is Falling Down' segueing into 'The Fool on the Hill', 'She Loves You' and the Stones' 'Satisfaction' - still keeping the reggae vibe. This all gave way to some low frequency rumblings from Nathan Watts as The Stylistics' 'People Make the World go Round' started-up - all of the lines for each of these numbers delivered with Stevie on the vocoder, and the song even had vocoder harmonies provided by the two guitarists.

Now I don't particularly like 'Part Time Lover', but without the high frequency hats of the original, it was a much more enjoyable number. 'Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing' and 'Living for the City' were both excellent - the one disappointment being that last concert he stuck to the track order of 'Innervisions', leading straight into 'Golden Lady, but alas not this time, instead, 'Visions' popped-up. Initially the crowd didn't seem to dig it, but I really liked it (I developed a soft spot after hearing Marcus Miller's cover), however as they brought the level down, Stevie stuck with the theme of the song and did a little preaching about World peace, with the highlight being where he challenged the guitarists to play out his message on their axes, making sure to show us what happens if the message is not followed. Obviously, that was enough to get the pair playing-off against each other, alternately playing in response/ unison with each other, leading to a manic crescendo - excellent!

Next up comes on of my favourites: 'Lately'. As per the last performance, rather than the pared-down version from we're used to, this one was accompanied by some initially heavy-handed percussion, so I was a little miffed, but Stevie's vocal on this song was awesome - really making you feel the sentiments of the song, as his singing became a plaintive pleading to his lover. If that weren't enough, they used the key change to raise the level, with the drummer pounding the hell out of the kit. Everyone was seated for this song, but upon hearing the closing bars jumped to their feet giving a standing ovation - and quite rightly. It really was a special version of this song, and I have goosebumps just writing this now.

Stevie is nothing if not humble, and gave his band ample opportunity to do their thing - which they did with much aplomb, and Aisha a little solo spot.

Other favourites 'Sir Duke' and 'Overjoyed' led into a medley of 'Isn't She Lovely', 'My Cherie Amour', 'Signed,Sealed, Delivered', 'I Wish' (I love that song!) and 'Superstition', which segued into recent hit 'So What the Fuss', but never escaped from the melody of 'Superstition' - and I was really hoping for the low-down funky bassline of that song to kick-in. Other than the brief visitation of a recent song (So What the Fuss), the most recent song played on the night was 'Overjoyed'. I was surprised (at both gigs) that nothing from recent album 'A Time to Love' was played - a duet of 'How Will I know' with Aisha Morris would have worked better than her solo song, I think.

It was quite funny when he asked the crowd to do him a favour: to sing to him. Choosing the not-exactly-easy lyrics of 'I Wish' meant that the opening lines of the song were silence - a shame as it did amuse me in the first gig when the line; "Looking back on when I - was a little nappy-headed boy" was answered by the backing singers with "Just this morning!" - but with them singing that in response to a bit of mumbling, it obviously went un-noticed this time.

Crowd-pleaser 'I Just Called' reared it's cheesy head towards the end, with 'As' bringing the whole thing to an end - with a little bit more of a "Barrack-ing" (TM) for us all - stating that Mr Obama will be in the Whitehouse on 4th Novemember.

As the slow groove of 'As' comes to a close, he takes the time to thank his fans for all of their support, the achievement of "Martin Luther King" day in the US (that's what the song 'Happy Birthday' is all about) and how thankful he is that through our continued support his late mother and his family have managed to have a nice life.

Great gig, but not sure of his ability to predict the presidential result, as I fear the US public may make a strange decision yet again.

Daniel O'Connell

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