Canal Street Online Manchester

Pride 2015 - Friday Night Main Stage

Pride 2015 - Friday Night Main Stage

Canal-St's Chris Park chats to Biopolar Sunshine and reviews Manchester Prides Friday night headline act Texas and the Britian's got Talent semi-finialist La Voix.

Texas

What is not to like about Texas? They stormed onto the stage as headliners on the Friday of Manchester Pride and had the crowd in the palm of their hand for their belting set. Launching straight into Halo, the crowd and singer Sharleen Spiteri where in fine voice.

It is hard to believe that Texas, as well as Manchester Pride, are celebrating their 25th anniversary. A fresh acoustic and very interactive version of their first hit I Don't Want A Lover took us all back to when Southside was released but it’s the tracks from their peak albums White on Blonde and The Hush which really get the crowd going.

Both these albums were well represented with track after track leaving the audience gasping for breath, In Demand was followed by a storming version of Summer Son, then straight into Black Eyed Boy, Say What You Want and all the way up to Inner Smile.

All the way through this, Spiteri expertly works the crowd with pleasing stories about her celebrity friends, Dallas Austin and a certain Madonna which gets members of the crowd very excited and never shying away from getting the crowd to singalong which we do with absolute gusto.

The encore is Elvis classic Suspicious Minds which gets everyone on a high.

Great performance from a legendary band.

La Voix

So Manchester Pride got off to a rousing start with opening act La Voix. The Britain’s Got Talent semi finalist and runner up of Ru Pauls Drag Race UK belted out crowd pleaser after crowd pleaser starting with a great rendition of Venus to get everyone in the mood as the sun set over the main stage.

She then pulled a fabulous version of Uptown Funk out of the bag followed by a rousing singalong version of Bonnie Tyler classic Total Eclipse of the Heart.

La Voix is the perfect opening act, getting everyone in the mood to party. Exuding old school glamour at its best, she presided over the crowd in leopard print.

The finale, what else but a high powered disco medley to launch Manchester Pride with a bang? La Voix looked genuinely excited to be up on the stage with her boys and long may she reign up there.

Bipolar Sunshine

Canal St Online caught up with Bipolar Sunshine, the former Kid British vocalist Adio Marchant, ahead of his appearance on the main stage. "I'm looking forward to playing to a different audience" he explained "It's nice to play and capture the crowd. An artist shouldn’t lose their energy".

The Manchester born artist was looking forward to getting back onto home territory after a summer of festivals "A Manchester crowd is always the best, it’s my home crowd. I have some friends here and my girlfriend".

Marchant put on a great performance later on with highlights from his recent EPs, Daydreamer, Deckchairs on the Moon and Where Did The Love Go along with a rousing cover version of Tears for Fears classic Mad World.

The crowd lapped it up and Marchant seemed to be relishing the crowd. So what is next for the artist? "I’m bringing an album out, I haven’t got a date yet. Then I’m working on albums two and three. I don’t want a two year hiatus between albums, people have the hunger for things more these days".

The Pride parade theme this year is Devotion, what is he devoted to? “Trying to live the good life” the smiles “The good life is the one you set for yourself”.

By Chris Park for Canal St Online.

Published: 29-Aug-2015: (3281)

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