Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Fastlove

Fastlove is a George Michael tribute act, who have been touring New Zealand (and are now on their way to Australia) over the last few days. We thought we’d go along and see them.


It was an 8:00pm start at the Michael Fowler Centre on a Saturday night, so we took the unprecedented step of dining at home before setting out. I know! We got there in plenty of time, even managing to find a reasonable parking space despite Wellington Council’s best efforts.

The show opened with Fastlove, and then went through a number of classic songs by both George Michael as a solo artist, and a reasonable amount of Wham! as well. The singer, Andrew Browning, has got the look and clothes down pat, but his voice is, understandably, not as good as George’s. This may have influenced the song selection, as he couldn’t quite reach the high notes. There were some notable absentees from the set – no Last Christmas, Freedom, or Young Guns. But apart from that, there was a good selection of George Michael hits, including songs that he’d covered or duetted with others on – the version of I Knew You Were Waiting, for example, which originally featured Aretha Franklin, but was now performed by Laura, one of the backing singers; and Somebody To Love, which he performed at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert.