Review: Madonna at Hyde Park

Roundhay Park, Leeds 1987: my first Madonna gig. Tickets set us back £15 each (unlike 2012, with no change from £70). In those days my best friend Hannah and I were such fans we collected every cutting we could find, and had even made pen pals from Europe via the back pages of No1 magazine or Smash Hits (sigh). We’d trade cuttings and week-by-week sit awaiting a tiny envelope from a far-off place with a clip of our fave superstar carefully placed inside.

So fast-forward 25 years and here we are again, minus the lace leggings and bangles – but still high with the emotions of a pair of 13 year olds. As our anticipation grew, the dry ice machine went into overdrive, obscuring the figures on stage – and then from somewhere above the stage she appeared and I burst into tears. Really. It must have been the lack of sleep.

But everyone else around us seemed suitably excited too. ‘I love the mix of ages,’ Hannah announced as a toddler sidled up to her with some cracking moves.

New album ‘MDNA’ tries to be controversial of course: Madonna checks into a motel during the song ‘Gang Bang’, and wielding a variety of firearms proceeds to wreck havoc on the life of her lover, before finally shooting him ‘dead, in the head’ – Bang Bang – against a video backdrop of splattered blood and police sirens.

‘Now I’m going straight to Hell – I have a lot of friends there,’ she quipped (cue evil laugh) as the sky blackened, the stormclouds heading our way. A two minute shower failing to dampen any spirits, Madonna declared it was ‘the power of (our) positive prayer’ holding the rain back. Exactly.

Not many oldies in the set, which meant that ‘Like a Prayer’, ‘Express Yourself’ and ‘Vogue’ were the obvious sing-along faves. ‘Like a Virgin’ was reworked into a slow Waltz with a bra-clad, vulnerable looking Madge collapsing to the floor. Collaborators Lil Wayne, MIA, and Nicki Minaj appeared on video backdrops. Oh, and there were drummers suspended in the air, a cheerleading sequence, and snippets of beloved golden oldies.

Costume changes? Plenty, including a Joan of Arc, Super Vixen and…maybe I spent too much time at the bar but actually I wasn’t really feeling the outfits. For someone so totally fuelled by reinvention they merely harped back to her ‘Express Yourself’ and ‘Justify My Love’ days.

It was a spectacular show, of course: only M can dance and writhe her way through a performance of nearly two hours amongst an array of honed and toned dancers. And yes, only one 53 year old can justify getting her kit off, simulating masturbation, flashing her butt cheeks – and still bring her 11 year old son out to bust some moves.

Controversial stuff, right? Well, yes, but it’s not really the sex, and not really the glamorised violence. Instead it’s Madonna’s confusing message: is she asking us to advocate extreme violence while joining her in a prayer for world peace?

Whatever, she’s a pop icon. And a hell of alot more stimulating than most.

Words: Nikki Verdon
Main Pic: Kevin Mazur