Stevie Wonder Birmingham 6th October 2008
On Saturday, on went to see the one and only Stevie Wonder in concert in Birmingham’s National Indoor Arena. It was fantastic. Wonder went through as many of his hits as possible in two and a half hours,, finishing with a performance of his classic “Superstition”, which he fused with lyrics from his newer dong “So what the Fuss?”. I have just put his in here mainly due the fact that it highlights all three areas of power spectacle and memory. Memory because during the concert Wonder would play for us some of his classic songs like “Master Blaster”, “Higher Ground” and “Living for the City”, feeding of the audience’s (particularly the memory of the older audience members) which may bring back memories of when they first heard that song or and event that a particular song reminds them of. In terms of spectacle, the show itself filled the spectacle criteria with its plethora of instruments on stage, dazzling video displays in the background and the amazing light shows. Power is interesting in terms of concerts, especially regarding those like Wonder where the artist has years of hits behind themselves. It is mainly the power the artist has to control an audience emotions, the way they can go from a tear jerking emotional ballad them to a rip-roaring funky number that has everyone on their feet is truly amazing power, imagine a government that could control the emotions of its people as easy!!
