Thursday 02/02/06 Goldfrapp @ The Guildhall, Southampton

The Southampton Guildhall venue for the Goldfrapp gig had great Athens style pillars at the entrance. This led one into a fantasy that the “Frappworld” about to be entered would be one of a hedonistic party with disco balls and mythical she-horses. Alison Goldfrapp would make an entrance as Aphrodite sat on the shoulders of Apollo and Hades, with glitter falling all around her. In the background there would be visuals of winged pagans dancing with wolves in an enchanted forest. And with a stag’s finger on the keyboard, the goddess would open up her new beautiful peacock tail and serenade her lost love. Tragically, the glamorous peacock spell had broken and Alison’s stage persona had turned into that of a hen. Oh no! The magic wand had been stolen by a goblin up to no good again.

Luckily, the elf snatched it back and restored the singer into a young hobbit from a small village called Somerset. It was her fate to embark on a mission to entertain the herd of peasants. The audience could stampede the world into destruction unless hypnotised by Ali’s divine voice and seduced into swaying their hips to the backdrop of heavenly, camp, glam-electro. So she put on her big gold shoes and (over her walking gear), a shawl ‘thingy’ and like Little Red Riding Hood with an iPod loaded with the likes of T-Rex, The Eurythmics, the Human League, 2manyDJs, Basement Jaxx etc, Alison began.
 
In the first part of the set she sang tunes from the first album that includes Alison showing off her yodelling skills.  During this time Alison Goldfrapp appeared to be suffering from “erotic-fatigue” for the stage, being unable to command or connect to an audience. At all. But her powerful voice blew everyone away. The technique of partly enhancing her voice with synthesizers makes it even more magical. Madonna, Kylie Minogue and the legendary Abba gals should curtsy. In return, she needs to learn from their performance talent, especially now Goldfrapp have got increasingly commercial.