Over the weekend I managed to drag myself away from the PILES AND PILES of work that I have strict deadlines for, in order to attend a live show those lovely folk from the Rogue Traders were putting on in Geelong.

It. Was. Sensational.

The support for the night came from the quite good TV Rock, and the poor mans version of Girls Aloud, Girlband. So let's begin where most of these tales do - at the very start. I arrived at The Geelong "Arena" (an incredibly misleading name) early. Over two hours early in fact. Eager, I know, but you have to understand that there was no way I was going to allow anyone else to snatch my rightful place up the very front of the stage. In the two hours of waiting around, myself and the three pop-loving-freaks I took along with me managed to amuse ourselves to the point of delirium. For example - a taxi drove past, and we made claim that it was Girlband's ride. We then joked a bit more about them having to pay the taxi fare themselves. The joke (somehow) continued hours later when Girlband appeared on stage minus a member; "Ah, OBVIOUSLY, the other one didn't have enough cash to pitch in for Taxi fare, so she got left behind".

BUT. Back to the start. TV Rock opened up the proceedings with guest vocalist's Seany B and Nancy Vice. Let me tell you a little something about Nancy Vice. She is like a mixture between Eurovision entrant Silvia Night, and former X-Files star Gillian Anderson (ask your parents). Which makes this lady VERY AMAZING INDEED. Take a look for yourself...

Oh. My. God.

"Believer" kicked things off, as Natalie filled the "Arena" with every ounce of her energy, parading about stage like the goddess that she is. Nat's voice was in perfect-form too, surprising many around me. I was not surprised however, because I always knew Natalie was an absolute star whose talents covered MANY areas. Now everyone else does too. Thank heavens for that.

"White Lightning" and "Watching You" followed, with James, Tim and Cam exuding just as much energy as Nat was behind their respective instruments. The treats kept coming, and through the night we were given gifts in the form of three new songs, including "Better In The Dark" (in which Natalie sings a line simply MADE for a Girls Aloud single: "You look better in the dark"), the ace "Shout Out" and the even, er, acer "What You're On". "Rescue Me" took the high-energy levels down a bit, as did "World Go Round". All which were performed effortlessly by "our" Nat.

As Miss Bassingthwaighte vacated the stage for a quick costume change, James Ash took centre stage and positioned himself behind a set of turntables/CDJ's/I-can't-remember-which-one-it-was. It was time to step back into the Rogue Trader time-capsule. For those of you who aren't aware (shame on you, et cetera), The Rogue Traders had an album out in 2003 called "We Know What You're Up To". This was before the inclusion of Natalie to the band line up, and when it was just James and Steve Davis as the faces of the act. Their first album is THE greatest dance music album an Australian artist/s has ever produced so, you know, it's a bit of shame no one bought it.

Anywho, James' history lesson came in the form of a DJ set, mixing 3 of the Traders' back catalogue numbers together as one. "Give Into Me" - which should have been Number #1 in this country for years - pulsated through the system first, followed by the EUPHORIC CLUB ANTHEM "Stay?". A bit of INXS followed, with the Rogue's remix re-titled "One Of My Kind". Some of you may remember that song being quite big. And rightfully so.

Watching James up there was amazing. This was a man I grew up listening to on the radio as an impressionable teenager (James used to host shows on Hitz FM and Kiss FM in the early-to-mid-to-late-90s). This was one of the four people who was responsible for my early interest in radio. The was one of the four people who was the reason I now host my OWN radio show in my "older" years. One of the reasons my passion for dance music is as strong as it is these days - again, I grew up listening to people like James Ash, Paul Dowsley, Lisa Foley and so many others from Hitz - and their passion for and knowledge of dance music not only inspired me, but TAUGHT me so much as well. Truly. Watching one of the people responsible for all of that up on stage, taking in all of his success - it was without a doubt the most brilliant moment I've ever had the honour of experiencing at any concert. To see someone I looked up to - scratch that - STILL look up to - standing up on a stage, performing in one of the greatest pop concerts I've been to... yeah, definitely a moment to remember.

Nat returned in the most exquisite British-flag inspired dress since Geri Halliwell's infamous Brit Awards "gown".


Isn't she just sensational?

"Fashion" followed shortly after, and just as I thought things could not get any better, THEY DID.

Regular readers of the site may remember a few months ago I made mention that the Rogue Traders should cover Transvision Vamp's "I Want Your Love". I said that because not only is it BEGGING to be covered, it was pretty much MADE to be covered by Natalie. End of. So you can imagine the absolute VOCAL ORGASM I underwent as the beginning of that VERY SONG began to blast through the speakers. Looking back on it all now, it was quite clearly all a bit too much for me. I'd just had an emotional experience minutes earlier watching James do his DJ thing, and now THIS was happening. If I wasn't screaming so much, I probably would have cried tears of sheer joy. Let's hope the cover is studio-recorded and, one day, surfaces as a B-Side to a future single release.

"We're Coming Home" signalled the "end" of the show (well, the "end" before the encore anyways), with the crowd inside the "Arena" chanting for more. As the guys returned to the stage, Natalie positioned herself on a stool, and began to serenade the audience with a touching, slow and gorgeously tender version of the first verse to "In Love Again", which IS the 5th greatest song ever made IN HISTORY. By the 2nd verse, in kicked the heavenly synth-electro-pop beats found within the original, and I absolutely lost my shit.

Of course, one more song to go before they could call it a night, and that was "Voodoo Child" which, as predicted, managed to tear the mutha-fuckin' roof off the "Arena".

To say this show was money well spent would be an understatement. I haven't had THAT much fun at a concert in a very long time. Nor at any festival I've gone to either. The atmosphere and the entire show was even better than any Big Day Out Festival I've gone to (International Readers: Big Day Out is a massive indie-music festival thrown every year here in Oz over summer). What else can be said except that this is most certainly my choice for live show of the year, without a doubt.

I was lucky enough to meet Natalie after the show. I waited around with several other fans for nearly 2 hours. Unfortunately, the 3 minutes I'd ducked back inside to use the public toilet just so happened to be the 3 minutes James decided to leave the venue and drive off in a van. I was mortified, I had so many exciting things for him to sign and so many more exciting things to say to him. Next time I'll just have to hold off my waters, won't I?

Anyways, as promised, exclusive photos as taken by myself can found here. Please don't publish them on your website unless you ask me for permission first. And if you ask me, of course I'm going to say yes. But it's just nice to be asked you see. Thievery is SO uncool.

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1 Comments:

• 9:33 AM | Hules said...
  I like that song "Flaunt It", however I think Seany B just goes a bit overboard on the husky man-voice thing.
  
  I just noticed your banner, the one on the side, I love it.

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