Grace Jones - Lovebox 2012 review

'Exaggerated eccentricity and playfulness are the perfect attributes for a Lovebox show'

Howard Jones - 18 June 2012

Less 'a few sandwiches short of a picnic' and more 'a whole Greggs bakery short', Grace Jones' irrepressible eccentricity provides the perfect, show-stopping high point to cap off Lovebox's 10th anniversary celebrations.

Ms. Jones emerges twenty minutes late, with a curtain drop revealing her on a pedestal high above her band, cloaked from head to toe in a silver sheet. The tone is set. Removing the cloak, the stand lowers her to stage level, revealing a giant opal on top of her head.

The music and entertainment value never let up as each song is followed by a costume change, with Grace donning increasingly bizarre headwear that would makes Royal Ascot hats look positively conservative. All headwear is provided by Philip Treacy, who we see on stage, briefly.

The crowd lap it up, with the exaggerated eccentricity and playfulness being the perfect attributes for a Lovebox hit. She then announces that her mother is on stage sipping wine which is rather worrying considering she's just spent the previous three minutes gyrating with her legs in the air around a pole.

A shout out to the French precedes 'La Vie en Rose' which Grace sings whilst sipping wine, peaking as the crowd join in with the soaring chorus -  much to her obvious delight.

She briefly competes for centre stage as the festival cameramen make smart work of locating some flashers in the crowd before Grace steals back the attention by re-appearing with a bowler hat which handily doubles up as a glitter ball during 'Pull up to the Bumper'.

The song ends with an explosion of coloured ticker tape being launched into the air as Grace departs to an uproarious reception, before returning to round off proceedings with 'Slave to the Rhythm'  complete with the ever-present, and always impressive, hula hoop party trick.

Five minutes later, the hula is still going and Grace is still singing. One of a thousand images from this incredible show that shall live long in people’s minds. Happy Birthday Lovebox.

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