It’s 27 years since Jason released his Ten Good Reasons album, the biggest selling album of 1989, and, for the first time ever, he now performs all of it, live, to an audience made up primarily of “ladies of a certain age”, who have followed his career avidly from the very beginning.
At that time Jason was riding high in the popularity stakes following his success as Scott Robinson in the Australian soap Neighbours and the album entered the UK Albums Chart at number two, and then reached number one, staying there for four weeks. When his cover of Brian Hyland’s Sealed With a Kiss entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, Jason became the first Australian male to ever hold both UK single and UK album chart number one positions simultaneously.
For an arena tour Jason’s stage set is quite intimate. He has a four piece band and a gantry of multi coloured neon lights as a backdrop but that’s not really important, as the crowd are here to see the man, not the set.
The first half is filled with Jason’s most popular songs from his other studio albums and, as soon as he takes to the stage the audience are on their feet and singing along to hits like Hang On to Your Love, Rhythm of the Rain, Another Night, RSVP, Happy Together, I’m Doing Fine and, getting the biggest cheer of the evening, Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
After an interval and a chance to sit down for a while, we are soon back on our feet and Jason returns to the stage and, proving that he can still pull off the white suited appearance of the cover of his album, he gives us eleven good reasons to listen – his Ten Good Reasons album also featured a very special 11th track.
Too Many Broken Hearts, Nothing Can Divide Us and Every Day (I Love You More), three of the solo singles taken from the album, are real crowd pleasers with Time Heals then leading us into his fouth solo single from the album, the Number One smash hit, Sealed With a Kiss.
Only the most die hard fans are still joining in with the lesser known album tracks Question of Pride, If I Don’t Have You, Change Your Mind and Too Late To Say Goodbye but we are very soon all singing and swaying to the final track from the album, and the show’s finale, Jason and Kylie’s chart topper, Especially for You.
Jason manages to prove in about 90 minutes exactly why the production team of Stock Aitken and Waterman were such a force to be reckoned with in the late 80’s and how, when music defines an era, it can stay with you for a lifetime.
**** Four Stars