Eighties icons thrill their fans

Grey skies did little to dampen the spirits of the legions of fans who turned out to catch a glimpse of their 80s icons.

And while they arrived armed with blankets, chairs and picnics, the atmosphere was far from subdued.

Flame-haired T'Pau frontwoman Carol Decker played a meagre four-song set, but her bawdy banter and pleas for audience participation got them in the party spirit.

Go West's slightly lengthier set was plagued by problems with a rogue keyboard stand, but the assembled fans didn't seem to mind and continued dancing in the aisles. ABC's set was as slick as any performance they gave in their heyday.

But it was Tony Hadley and Rick Astley who received the biggest cheers of the night.

And when the Stock, Aitken and Waterman superstar invited his female fans back to his "Travelodge off the M6" it was almost possible to hear them swooning in unison.

It was, predictably, the familiar hits that received the best reception, but the acts had a few surprises up their collective sleeves - not all of which quite came off. Tony Hadley's overblown cover of David Bowie's Life On Mars? was a bit of a damp squib, and the less said about his duet with Rick on a swing version of the Pussycat Doll's 2005 hit Don't Cha the better.

But the former Spandau Ballet frontman struck gold with an uncannily faithful rendition of The Killer's Somebody Told Me.

Rick, Tony and Go West frontman Peter Cox returned to the stage as a trio for a finale which saw channelling the spirit of the Rat Pack with a version of swing standard That's Life.

As a cavalcade of fireworks was sent up into the overcast sky to cap off the night, it was hard to conclude that anyone in the audience had anything other than a night to remember.