Tina turns back time in UK return

Steamy Windows made an energetic opening

By Ian Youngs
Music reporter, BBC News

As Tina Turner struts, shimmies and pouts her way through Steamy Windows, it is almost as if the last 20 years in music have just been a bad dream.

She may now appear a bit like Beyonce's wily, wild grandma, it is true.

But as her 70th birthday looms, she is in great shape. Her scorching voice has not diminished one bit, and nor has her stage presence.

In three-quarter length sparkly tights and matching gold vest and shawl, she is not just holding the years at bay, but positively trying to turn them back through sheer force of will.

With her crowd-pleasing pack of power ballads, array of dazzling costumes and soft rock backing, all unhindered by any attempts to be cool and current, she could be beaming in live from 1987.

She last performed in the UK for two dates at Wembley Stadium during her "retirement" tour of 2000.

Theatrical gestures

This time, she is at the O2 arena in London as part of a comeback tour billed as a celebration of 50 years in the business.

As Steamy Windows opens the show, Turner struts her stuff with four young dancers, and reminds us why she was one of the best in the business at owning a stage.

Turner is still prepared to put on the gold stretch spangles at nearly 70

As she makes her way across the stage and back, there is the occasional flick of the head, a quick kick of a leg, a sudden lurch, a short shimmy.

There's nothing too strenuous, but the theatrical gestures Turner has honed combine with her voice to build the drama.

The two-and-a-half hour show is peppered with spectacular numbers where the costume and set budgets have been liberally splashed.

For We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome), the single's original video is recreated on stage, Mad Max costumes and all.

A giant metal frame is lowered onto the stage for the dancers to dangle and swing from, as Turner wears a majestic blonde mane, Sydney Opera House shoulderpads and silver tassled robe.

Mini-fireworks go off in the background and clips of the original 1985 video flash up behind her. And you know what, she doesn't look much different.

Anthems

For Goldeneye, the song starts with a James Bond fight sequence between two male dancers, before Turner appears through a giant opening high above the stage, wearing a black evening dress with long gold chains.

And for the (almost) finale, Nutbush City Limits, a narrow strip of the stage floor suddenly lifts up like a crane, with Turner cradled in its basket at the end.

As she is swung out over the heads of the crowd, she leans over the railing with disconcerting abandon and bids the fans to join in the song.

She then totters in high heels along the thin arm of the crane - still above the crowd - stopping in the middle to do a little dance, then totters back to the end.

She does manage to sit on a stool for a four-song section of the gig, but even then her upper body is still as animated as ever.

Simply The Best is, predictably, the musical highlight for many - the cream of her uplifting epics for those here, or the epitome of her slushy cheese for those who are not so keen.

But not many artists can claim songs ranging from 1960s and '70s classics like River Deep - Mountain High, Nutbush and Proud Mary to some of the most recognisable anthems of the '80s, such as We Don't Need Another Hero and What's Love Got To Do With It.

They were all wisely included in this show.

And Tina Turner still has what it takes to belt them out.