Pop Goes The 80s

Pop Goes the 80s was QPAC Choir’s annual concert which took a trip back to the eighties, the era that gave us leg-warmers, Rubik’s Cube and the Walkman. It was also the era in music which saw the rise of synth-pop and superstars Madonna and Michael Jackson. They were all represented in this showcase that featured 180 voices, guest artists from the Griffith University Musical Theatre course, and a nine-piece band.

Highlights included an a capella version of Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time”, and a multi-layered vocal of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” that had the hall rocking. A Madonna medley mined her hits and included “Like a Virgin”, while a Stock, Aitkin and Waterman salute featured the Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan duet “Especially for You”.

Nicole Herreen and Bailey Southon blended beautifully on the Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers Bee Gees hit “Islands in the Stream”, while eight of their fellow Griffith Musical Theatre graduates opened the show with an infectious song and dance to “Fame”.

Duran Duran and Wham were absent from the song-stack, but ABC (“The Look of Love”), Cyndi Lauper (“Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”), The Bangles (“Walk Like an Egyptian”), and Whitney Housten (“I Wanna Dance with Somebody”) were popular representations.

Like last year’s 70s concert, comedy was again provided by some amusing TV ads of the period, choirmaster Timothy Sherlock had fun with an 80s group trivia quiz, and a pre-show photo-slide of artists as they are now and what they looked like back then were an added and audience-involving plus. Good guitar and brass work was a feature of the band led by Tina Liu on piano and Brendan Murtagh on keyboard.

Peter Pinne

Photographer: Darren Thomas.