Change in Amsterdam

The 80s were back last night at Paradiso in Amsterdam, the beautiful venue in the heart of the city, a former church, which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. So many memories were brought back last night when singer Rick Brennan, who was a member of the original Change line-up from 1983 to 1985, and singer Tanya Michelle Smith, who is one of the singers of the current line-up, performed all of the hits of the 80s which accompanied us throughout the decade and beyond. Starting off with “Miracles”, from the album of the same name from 1981, going into “Heaven Of My Life” from the same album, we were in for a real treat for about 90 minutes. Even though Rick had the tough task to perform songs which were led by Luther Vandross and James “Crab” Robinson originally, he was able to put his own individual spin onto the tracks.

There were a lot of crowd pleasers, actually almost all of the pieces, but the Luther-voiced songs from their first album (“The Glow Of Love”, 1980), were especially tight and well-rounded: the title track, “A Lover’s Holiday”, and “Searching”. My personal faves, “Hold Tight” and “Warm”, were also done with exquisite vocals and a pretty good band, establishing the very thick and solid grooves. The group also played a couple of songs from their last album before they split up, 1985’s “Turn On Your Radio”: the brilliant “Let’s Go Together” and the so-so “Mutual Attraction”, the only song which didn’t really appeal to me last night. And of course, the Jam & Lewis-produced “Change Of Heart” LP was present as well: with the afore-mentioned classic “Warm”, the still triggering “You Are My Melody”, and the evening closer “Change Of Heart” which had the full audience singing along to a rousing finale.