Bonnie Tyler
Hammersmith Odeon, London; 11.05.88

'Bonnie's Back!' proclaimed the tour poster, yet even after a nine year absence from touring there was plenty to suggest that Ms Tyler's pulling power had been seriously over estimated. the Odeon was only two-thirds full, and having witnessed many ringside stampedes over the years it came as quite a shock to encounter such an over-whelmingly 'polite' response.

No one was on their feet (possibly an unprecedented occurrence within these walls?) and who could blame them. Bonnie's own breed of middle-aged rock attracts the sort of people who would probably fall apart if they tried to move. A man of at least 60 sat directly in front of me, whilst a fair proportion of the rest had seemingly lost their way en route to the Saturday matinee.

Munching popcorn and butter-scotch to the decayed rhythms of 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' and other song titles too long to repeat, it was sad more than anything to watch 'ol gravel voice in the twilight of her career. But such is the fragility of the rock 'n' rawl business buddy.

Ah well, pass me another orange cream dear. - Chris Twomey

Dominion Theatre, London
1.2.89
Verdict: Forget her dodgy past, Bonnie's a rocker at heart!

BEFORE THE lights go down, the PA entertains us with music by Magnum, AC/DC and ‘Big Generator’-era Yes - and already the Yuppies in the stalls are shifting uncomfortably in their seats.
Show-time arrives and the band strike up a loping, distant beat that gradually mutates into a Survivor-style groove with a vague disco-fied edge. This is not what we’d been expecting.
Bonnie Tyler makes a dramatic entrance a few moments later and rasps out the opening lines of a song that, unless I’m mistaken, is called ‘So Ravishing’, but her voice is so gravelly and throaty that she could equally have been singing about the radishes she ate earlier in the evening. This lady sounds like she’s been the victim of a larynx transplant with Motörhead’s Lemmy as the donor, but she can certainly sing.
For the next hour-and-a-half, Bonnie and her five-piece backing band stampede through 15 quality songs which flit across Hard Rock, beefy Blues, catchy US-style AOR and out-and-out Pop. In the UK she’s known mainly for tunes like ‘Lost In France' - fortunately omitted from tonight’s proceedings - plus ‘It’s A Heartache’ and her No. One hit Total Eclipse Of The Heart’. These days she’s valiantly trying to put the embarrassing teen mania’ years behind her, concentrating on something more wholesome.
As anybody who bought last year’s patchy yet brilliant ‘Hide Your Heart’ LP will testify, Bonnie has grown into a fully-fledged rocker with the assistance of some highly credible cohorts. The album had several top-notch tunes, and
Bonnie played most of ‘em tonight; the Desmond Child/Paul Stanley/Holly Knight composition ‘Hide Your Heart’, a dynamite song with powerful guitar stabs that must have caused some Yuppies to drop their Filofaxes in astonishment; the heart-
wrenching ‘Save Up All Your Tears', another song penned by Child in a vein that John Waite carries off so well; new single ‘Notes From America’; the emotive ‘Streets Of Little Italy’; plus the wonderful Jim Steinman-penned pair of ‘Total Eclipse and ‘Faster Than The Speed Of Night’. To my dismay the excellent ‘Take Another Look At Your Heart’ (written once again by Child and the mega-talented Michael Bolton) was passed over, but then you can’t have everything.

However, Bonnie is held back by her lacklustre stage presence. When she played at last year’s Reading Festival she came across as a ferocious tiger, snarling and spitting out the ‘F’ word every time she was hit by a plastic bottle
or a can, but without the motivation of that barrage of objects she tended to appear static and nervous. It wasn’t until the frantic applause awarded ‘Total Eclipse...‘ that she discarded the mike stand and began to show off a little.
All the same, this was a dramatic show from an artist who adds new dimensions to the term 'unfashionable’. It’s easy to make criticisms when you bear in mind that Bonnie’s best songs were all written by other people, but you simply can’t knock a show like this in terms of the quality in every tune.
Manufactured she might well be, but at least it’s not to the standards of British workmanship!

DAVE LING for RAW (heavy metal!) Magazine.

Hide Your Heart Tour Book - 1988