KAJAGOOGOO - Bochum 2008

While TOKIO HOTEL are the musical heroes providing for the boost of the editions of the teen press these days, KAJAGOOGOO took their place 25 years ago. Barely another group in the 80s could win the hearts of their female fans in such short time and simultaneously causing a stir with timeless hits. With the chorus “Too shy shy hush hush eye to eye” a whole generation was brought up. After the group with singer Limahl split up for good in the mid eighties, came the big surprise in on the English television channel VH1. KAJAGOOGOO and Limahl reunited for one single performance. But the hope of the fans wasn’t fulfilled and the matured boys went their own ways again. With the release of a single with only three of the “Kajas” in summer 2007 again caused a huge interest of the media and paved the way for a performance on a retro festival.



The enormous success was the initial spark for the unbelievable. In February 2008, the first photo shooting of the reunited five-piece with Limahl took place. And in June it was finally time on the Esbjerg Festival (DK). KAJAGOOGOO in their original line-up with Limahl, Nick Beggs, Steve Askew, Stuart Neale and Jez Strode presented their first live gig after 25 years and not only thrilled old fans. Until the release of the new album in 2009, the five guys in their original line-up will excite the fans and I was happy that KAJAGOOGOO were coming to Bochum where I got to see them. KAJAGOOGOO is Limahl (vocals), Nick Beggs (bass, chapman stick, vocals), Jez Strode (drums), Steve Askew (guitars) and Stuart Neale (keyboards & programming). http://www.kajagoogoo.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/officialkajagoogoo



Music & Performance
Even though the Zeche was not totally sold out, the hall was very well filled when at 8.15 first Nick Beggs and then the band one after another entered the stage to the spherical intro music Limahl being last wearing a big smile on his face. The small wrinkles around his eyes showed that he was not the youngest anymore but still he wore a smile in his face making him looking like a little boy. The show started with older songs, ‘K-A-J-A-G-O-O-G-O-O’ being first which was enthusiastically welcomed by the audience, followed by ‘Interview Rooms’, ‘White Feathers’ and the big hit ‘Big Apple’. After the latter song, it was time for the singer to thank the audience - of course in German - and also show tome comedian talents. “Great to be back in Germany again as KAJAGOOGOO. It is the first time for 25 years. We’re 25 years older bit still with hair and teeth.” The following ‘Hang on now’ was started by Nick Beggs on vocals before Limahl joined in and Steve presenting some guitar solo.



The funky ‘Shouldn’t do that’ was next on the list and was loudly accompanied by the audience. After this song it was time for more small talk by Limahl... “In the eighties we had all crazy hair”... yeah, a picture he held up showed that perfectly... and then he stated that such a hair style would also fit Barak Obama. Then he announced the upcoming “fast” love song ‘Only for love’ which was accompanied by Mr. Begs shaking his hips causing some screams within his fans. ‘Lion’s Mouth’ and ‘Ooh to be Ah’ were following, latter starting with a wonderful piano intro. Then it was finally time for a change. “We are so excited to present you our four new songs”, stated Limahl. Furthermore he said that it was only natural to write new songs after the re-union. All four songs will soon be released as an EP.



The first of the new songs was ‘Dead defying Headlines’ dealing with the crazy headlines you can read in the newspapers every day. Next on - ‘Space Cadet’ - was about a “crazy guy who likes to smoke a little grass, to drink and who doesn’t pay the bills”. This very funky song was warmly welcomed by the crowd. Third new song ‘Dreaming of the same Thing’ dealt with religion that “has fucked up the world”. Last new song was ‘High life’ which I liked a lot. All in all you can say about the newly written stuff that they are still compatible to the old stuff musically, but that the lyrics are grown up dealing with more serious topics. Ok, back now to the good old stuff most people were waiting for. Before ‘Turn your back on me’ started, the band was introduced, and latter on it was time for a special applause for Nick’s boots. Yeah! The main set was finished with a song that was written for a movie novel and “a special gift” to Giorgio Moroder: ‘Neverending Story’ when people loudly sang the refrain together with the band or all alone... at the end even the music went down and you could only hear people singing. Fantastic!



What would be such a concert without any encore and especially without the biggest hit of the band? Of course ‘Too shy’ was coming up as first encore when people first were singing the whole refrain all alone before the music and the whole song started. Finally, ‘Monochromatic’ finished a fantastic re-union concert. At the end needs to be said that all musicians of the band got their chance to play some shorter or longer solo parts showing that all of them are really gifted musicians and not just grown up teen idols.

Setlist
00. Intro
01. K-A-J-A-G-O-O-G-O-O
02. Interview Rooms
03. White Feathers
04. Big Apple
05. Hang on now
06. Shouldn’t do that
07. Only for love
08. Lion’s Mouth
09. Ooh to be Ah
10. Dead defying Headlines (new)
11. Space Cadet (new)
12. Dreaming of the same Thing (new)
13. High Life (new)
14. Turn your back on me
15. Lies and promises
16. Neverending Story
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17. Too shy
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18. Encore Surprise: Monochromatic

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10



All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com/ / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography)
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