Kylie launches ‘Kiss Me Once Tour’ in Liverpool
By Nick Levine
Kylie kicked off her Kiss Me Once Tour at Liverpool’s Echo Arena last night (September 24).
Before the main stage show began, the singer premiered an eight-minute short film called Sleepwalker, directed by her longtime collaborator William Baker, in which she plays a variety of characters including Sleeping Beauty and Miss Havisham.
The short film features three brand new tracks recorded with Mexican producer Fernando Garibay – Glow, Wait and Break This Heartbreak. Together with a fourth new track recorded with Garibay, Chasing Ghosts, which soundtracked an interlude in the show’s main setlist, the tracks were made available online while Kylie was performing onstage. Listen to them here.
The main show was divided into six sections: Surrealist Girlie Revue, Bauhaus Disco, Dolls’ House, Fashsex, Kiss Me Once, Showgirl2014 and Into The Blue. Kylie’s setlist drew from her entire career, and included a Stock Aitken Waterman-era medley, six songs from her latest album Kiss Me Once, an a cappella rendition of Especially for You and a cover of Need U Tonight by INXS, the band fronted by the late Michael Hutchence, Kylie’s one-time boyfriend.
Many of her best-loved hits, including Spinning Around, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, Wow, All the Lovers and Love At First Sight, were performed in full. She ended on Into the Blue, the lead single from her most recent album.
The show’s stage set was as spectacular as fans have come to expect from the Aussie popstar, and included a hot pink life-size dolls’ house, showgirls decorated in red lobsters, and a set of giant glowing red lips.
The singer wore costumes by Marchesa, Dolce and Gabbana and Julien Macdonald. As the tour began, she said in a press release: “For me, it’s the ultimate because you are really living in the moment. All aspects of what I do have to come together in a live environment, which is at once thrilling and nerve-wracking! Having so much shared energy in one place is amazing.”
Check out the full setlist below:
Breathe/Les Sex
In My Arms
Timebomb
Sexy Love
Wow
Interlude: Chasing Ghosts
Step Back In Time
Spinning Around
Your Disco Needs You
On a Night Like This
Slow
Medley: Enjoy Yourself/Hand on Your Heart/Never Too Late/Got to Be Certain/I Should Be So Lucky
Interlude: Skirt
Need You Tonight
Sexercize
Can’t Get You Out of My Head
Kids
Beautiful
Kiss Me Once
Get Outta My Way
Love At First Sight
Especially for You
All the Lovers
Into the Blue
Kylie’s Kiss Me Once Tour will now visit Manchester, London, Cardiff, Nottingham and Birmingham before heading into mainland Europe. In November, she will return to the UK and Ireland for dates in Dublin, Belfast, Newcastle, Glasgow and Sheffield.