Boney M
16th June 2017
Bruce Mason Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Brad Holland.
Platform shoes and disco suits were the order of the day for many of the audience members walking through the doors of the Bruce Mason Centre tonight. Due to recent complaints of the length of Boney M’s shows – support acts had been added to the remainder of their tour around the country; the Auckland support being the lovely Miss Bella Kalolo. The Samoan/Tongan/Ngati Porou soul songstress arrived on stage quietly, accompanied only by a DJ, but soon captured the attention the of the audience as she began to sing. Based in Wellington this young lady already has a rather impressive CV; a couple of albums and support slots to artists such as Chaka Khan to name but a few highlights.
Kalolo exuded an energy that filled the space around her with light, and songs such as ‘Be Happy’ and ‘Mr. Duncan’ which each came with a short backstory displayed her love of community and desire for realness. As she introduced her track ‘Is it worth it’ a young woman in the front row enthusiastically agreed that yes it was, Kalolo bursting out into laughter “Oh it is? Good!”. Where Kalolo really shone is on her more funk/soul inspired tracks such as ‘Without The Paper’ and ‘Good Things’; and while her backing track did indeed feature trumpets and other such instruments one couldn’t help but wish that she could have appeared with her usual soul band which would have rounded out her sound perfectly.
A short DJ set of classic tracks featuring everyone from The Jackson Five through to Abba, warmed the crowd up with many already on their feet having a boogie. As the lights went out, the sound of rain surrounded us and the stage was illuminated in deep blue. Suddenly four disco balls suspended above the stage came to life filling the venue with gorgeous twinkling light.
Boney M had arrived and they looked every inch as stunning as you expected them to; without a word they began to sing ‘Sunny’ the audience shooting to their feet to dance along. And on their feet is basically where they remained for almost the entirety of the show, the feel good vibes of the music too good to ignore. ‘Daddy Cool’ and ‘Ma Baker’ came early in the set, everyone singing along with every word; the group members appearing to feed off the vivacity generated, as they play acted on stage to the themes of the songs. Boney M are infamous for the fact that many of the original members (after waning sales and a falling out with their creator) splintered and created their own versions. Tonight’s four piece is led by original member Maizie Williams who stated in a recent interview that while there may have been issues amongst the members, the music that they created will always remain true, the songs still bringing her great joy to sing.
A wonderful acapella version of the song ‘Malaika’ gave the crowd an opportunity to sit and rest their dancing shoes for a while, Boney M following it up with a fun sing off between the male and female members (and for the record, yes the boys took this one out).
At one point a rather dapper young boy to the side of stage caught the eye of Williams and she beckoned him forward. ‘Syd’ we would later find out, was celebrating his birthday tonight, and after busting out some rather impressive dance moves across the stage was serenaded by not only Boney M but the entire venue as they sang him Happy Birthday (you can watch the video below). A night he is sure to remember for many a year to come.
‘Rasputin’ threatened to bring the house down, the group absolutely hamming it up on stage as they sang about “Russia’s greatest love machine”; and of course what would a Boney M show be without the beautiful ‘Rivers of Babylon’? An encore was unsurprisingly demanded and Boney M returned to perform a more modern version of ‘Gotta Go Home’, inviting both Syd (for a second time) and a young girl up on stage to dance with them. Now at this point, with the house lights up and the music over most people would imagine that the show was well and truly finished and that it was time to do the usual shuffle towards the exit.
But not tonight.
A line of men towards the back of the audience had begun to sing, their voices echoing across the room. Their version of ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ quickly captured the attention of the rest of the audience, with many joining in. It was so stirring that it even captured the attention of Williams herself who suddenly appeared back on stage, waving her arms at sound desk while simultaneously signaling for a microphone. “So you want one more do you? Alright then, one more”, and once again the group began to sing ‘Ma Baker’. Sure we had already heard it tonight, but no one minded in the slightest. Boney M inviting several people up on stage to dance as the audience gave it everything they had one last time.
Who could have asked for anything more?
Were you there at the Bruce Mason Centre for this nostalgic disco flashback? Or have you seen Boney M somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- Sunny
- Hooray, Hooray, It’s A Holi-Holiday
- Daddy Cool
- Ma Baker
- Belfast
- Malaika
- Brown Girl In The Ring
- No Woman No Cry (Bob Marley – cover)
- Rasputin
- Rivers Of Babylon
- Gotta Go Home (encore)
- Ma Baker (encore)
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