Pink Funhouse Summer Carnival Tour 2010 > Reviews (1)

Last year my sister took my daughter to see Pink when she played at the SECC in Glasgow. The experience left a lasting impression on my daughter, so much so the only female singer to come close to Pink in her affections is Lady Gaga – and she managed to wangle a trip to the same venue earlier this year with her Auntie to see Gaga’s tour.

She would go back and see Gaga again in a shot she told me, but Pink is the best purely because her shows are extravaganzas with acrobatics Gaga could possibly only dream of.

When Pink announced a UK stadium tour for summer 2010 I decided to snap up tickets for my daughter at £45 each. So, on Saturday 26th June, we found ourselves at Glasgow’s Hampden Park for the Funhouse Summer Carnival.

The Venue

Most people will see the name Hampden and just automatically think of football, but the venue is used for a few concerts every year, and the week before our visit, the venue had played host to Paul McCartney.

Hampden is located on the south side of Glasgow and I decided to take a chance and drive there, parking on one of the side streets not far from Kings Park rail station and then walking downhill to the venue. There is lots of public transport but the roads do become pretty gridlocked after an event has finished, as we discovered to our cost later on.

Our seats were located in the South Stand of the stadium and we had a reasonable view but make no mistake, Hampden is huge. Having seen concerts at London’s O2 and Manchester’s MEN, I thought I would find Hampden a breeze, but Pink really was a dot on the horizon and without the giant screens erected for the occasion I wouldn’t have had a clue if it really was her on the stage.

Most of the seating areas around the stage were full and there was a huge standing crowd on the pitch area. Under 14s were not permitted in the standing area so it was a non-starter for us, but as a distinctly middle aged git, I was happy to have a seat.

Hampden is strictly non-smoking but alcohol is available to buy at the many bars dotted around the stadium. When we arrived we decided to go to the toilets first and having had to queue for 10 minutes for a cubicle to become free I decided to forego any drinks – of the soft variety or the hard stuff – but others were getting well and truly into the spirit of the occasion, which I supposed is to be expected in Glasgow.

The Concert

We arrived at Hampden about 90 minutes before Pink was due onstage. The doors had opened at 4.30 pm but we only caught one of the three support acts, female singer VV Brown. I was less than impressed with her – her screechy vocals and self aggrandisement didn’t really endear her to the crowd, but at least she knew she was in Glasgow. At an earlier gig she had bigged up the Cardiff crowd, oblivious to the fact she was actually in Swansea.

The only thing she did which got the crowd moving was a cover version of I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas which did work at warming up the crowd in readiness for the star.

I had noticed a huge crane beside the stage area and said to my daughter that I thought Pink would use that for her grand entrance but my daughter wasn’t so sure, thinking it was far too high up for her.

After VV Brown exited the stage the Funhouse set was revealed and my daughter informed me it was almost identical to that used in her 2009 tour. It featured some slides and waltzer carriages and there was a huge video screen backdrop. Some huge inflatable figures sat at the side of the stage too but they weren’t used as part of the set. Pink had a huge gangway stage in place too, which seems to be a permanent feature of her stage shows, allowing her to come out into the audience at times.

The Hampden website had announced that Pink would be onstage at 9.00 pm and bang on that time we saw the crane start to move. This was what the crowd had been waiting for and for the first time in my life I experienced the Hampden roar as they let Pink know they were ready for her.

The crane moved and suddenly a box appeared, with colourful balls underneath. Two dancers dressed like wind up dolls came onstage but I said to my daughter to watch the box, certain that Pink was inside it.

The crane slowly moved the box around and the crowd started to go wild with anticipation but Pink was taking her time. Then, all of a sudden, the box opened at the bottom releasing a huge amount of balloons and streamers and then, in the blink of an eye, Pink slid down on a harness in what has got to be one of the most impressive entrances I have ever seen onto a stage. She was wearing a black leotard with black frilled blouse and huge orange wings, which she discarded once she hit the stage.

Opening with perennial encore Get the Party Started singing through a loud hailer, Pink had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand in no time, and this was to be the start of a highly entertaining show.

Pink didn’t perform this ultimate party starter in its entirety, slipping quickly into Funhouse and then Ave Mary A with fervour and with able assistance from her dancers and backing singers.

By the time she started Who Knew, the whole of Hampden was on its feet – not just the crowd in front of her.

It has to be said that Pink is an incredibly gifted singer – she has a strong voice which has a really wonderful tone to it – she can sound tough and sassy as convincingly as she can sound heartbroken and on Who Knew this combination of styles was brilliantly displayed. She was just as good on Just Like a Pill, a song I was surprised to see so early on in her set. She then tackled Please Don’t Leave Me and wisely referred to the fact she was in Glasgow and the drink was freely flowing before launching into Sober. The crowd loved this.

After the acrobatic entrance we wondered if she would do any more of her famous stunts on the show – I did wonder if the fact she was performing outside would limit this. However she and her dancers performed some wonderful stunts on Unwind using long sashes. Sometimes I have wondered if Pink is miming when she does these stunts when I see my daughter watching tour DVDs she owns, but there was nothing to suggest she wasn’t singing live on Unwind as she performed the acrobatics.

The show quietened down for a couple of acoustic numbers, with Pink also playing guitar on I Don’t Believe You. This was quite a powerful rendition – there was something quite touching about her performance as she sat on a stool belting the song out. She also performed Dear Mr President, a song she used as a biting commentary on Dubya’s presidency but this time there was no video backdrop to reiterate her point.

Things livened up again with Butch Walker appearing onstage to perform with Pink. Walker has co-written several songs with Pink and is a competent performer but doesn’t have the presence or the vocal ability that Pink possesses, and their medley of My Generation, Basket Case and Roxanne was interesting enough but Walker’s vocals on My Generation in particular were karaoke-esque and a fair imitation of Roger Daltrey. Pink finished Roxanne by getting into a huge hamster ball and rolling over the standing crowd as Walker and her band played on.

The hamster ball helped get the crowd going after Walker’s stint and she got everyone in full flow with her own cover version of 4 Non Blondes’ What’s Up? - I would imagine the sound of the crowd singing along would have carried as far as the other side of the city centre.

A frenzied performance of U + Ur Hand and Leave Me Alone (I’m Lonely) got the entire crowd singing and dancing along as the show came to an end.

The stage then fell into darkness, leaving the crowd begging for more. After about 5 minutes of this, the lights were switched back on by Pink’s dancers and she emerged to perform the finale, which was So What. Acrobatics played a part again, and Pink performed the song flying around the stadium in a harness. And no – she wasn’t miming.

This was electric to watch – how she does this is a marvel and she has definitely taken live performances to another level with her acrobatics never mind her incredibly strong vocals.

Once the song finished Pink exited the stage for the final time leaving an audience satisfied and entertained.

Other Stuff

I have already mentioned the set was similar to that that used in the previous Funhouse tour, but the video backdrops were quite different.

Some of these were black and white silent films – they were highly stylised and referred quite literally to some of the songs Pink was performing. Others were colourful animation clips which featured ferris wheels and other carnival rides.

The Bob Mackie costumes were by and large a bit dull. Pink has an amazing figure – she is quite obviously incredibly fit and toned, but she opened in a dull black frilled blouse and skirt, and after a few songs she changed into a black leotard with diamante trim. She rung the changes with this leotard by wearing different skirts in places throughout her set but by and large she looked the same until the So What encore, when she changed into a green leotard which was far more eye catching.

The costumes she wore in some of the black and white clips were far better overall – some were straight from a Las Vegas showgirl’s wardrobe but couldn’t be seen in all their splendour due to the fact the clips were in monochrome.

Merchandise was available to buy at the peripheral fence at Hampden and also on the standing area. My daughter bought a programme and a keyring. The programme was £20 but was lavish – the pictures were amazing and it even included a paper doll. The keyring was only £3. T-shirts could be had for £20 but some cost more. The merchandise wasn’t cheap but it did include small items such as keyrings and temporary tattoos meaning it wasn’t completely unaffordable.

The one thing that wasn’t good was the sound. I appreciate it’s hard to get sound just right in a venue such as Hampden but at times it was very, very hard to hear Pink singing due to poor acoustics and a poor mix in the sound levels.

There is, however, no denying that Pink is a very likeable performer – her appeal stretches across every section of society and I was by no means the oldest person in the crowd, and nor was my daughter the youngest.

She genuinely has the common touch and draws people towards her. She attempted to do a Scottish accent, and having witnessed other performers try this in Glasgow and die on their feet she was able to sound both convincing and get the crowd cheering. When fans throw things at the stage she picks them all up and during What’s Up she picked up a feather boa and Lady Gaga style glasses from Primark to wear during the song, and of course wrapped herself around a saltire, ensuring the whole crowd were cheering as she did so.

She doesn’t have to talk for ages to engage with a crowd either – a little talk during the songs is just enough for people to connect with her but she doesn’t do this between every single song, preferring to keep the music flowing.

Her band were tight – guitarist Justin Derrico is particularly good and as any good team player, Pink ensures everyone gets a credit and has the spotlight thrust upon them.

Pink admitted during the concert that this concert comprised the biggest crowd she had ever performed in front of, and some lesser peformers might have choked, but not Pink – she rose to the occasion and gave her Scottish fans a memorable evening as she opened up her Funhouse and took it to another level with a performance that was both high-octane and touching.

If you only go to see one concert then I would recommend you consider going to see Pink - her ticket prices are affordable yet the show is classy, well considered and beautifully executed. I am not a huge fan of hers but I came away highly entertained and felt we had got great value for money on the night.

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