LIVE: CHRIS de BURGH – Perth, 11 May 2025

Shane | 14 May 2025 | Reply

LIVE: CHRIS de BURGH – Perth, 11 May 2025
Riverside Theatre, Perth, Western Australia
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
Photography by Linda Dunjey

Chris de Burgh seems like a really nice, gentle, down to earth soul, chatting amiably with the sellout Riverside Theatre crowd on his first Perth show in almost thirty years like an old friend or a kind uncle. He even keeps the lights on the crowd in between songs so he can see us all, the charming devil, and talks self-deprecatingly about his time in Perth.

He’s dressed dapperly, and to be honest looks like a suburban grandad you’d walk past in the street – though he tells a story about being recognized in King’s Park by a young lady who requested he play The Tower (he does).

He’s had 50 years, of course, to hone his craft as a musician and performer and any temptation to remember him as a two-hit-wonder is quickly dispelled as recognisable song after recognisable song washes over us – Ship To Shore, High On Emotion and the crowd pleasing Patricia The Stripper for starters.

[Show picture list]

This is billed as his 50LO tour – so it’s just de Burgh on stage, sometimes behind a piano, sometimes playing his twelve-string guitar, sometimes singing to a backing track – always showcasing his wonderfully rich and still impressive voice and unique talent for storytelling through song. He also notes at one point that this show feels almost full circle, in that the solo treatments remind him of how the songs were “before I took them into the studio and ruined them!”

Highlights include opener The Hands Of Man, Missing You, It’s Never Too Late, the good versus evil epic Spanish Train, the apocalyptic Transmission Ends and A Spaceman Came Travelling – before which he teases Here Comes The Sun, House Of The Rising Sun, Hotel California and more – but to be honest we could have done without some of his cover versions (Africa, Pretty Woman) – especially as they followed his two biggest hits, the dynamic Don’t Pay The Ferryman and schmaltzy Lady In Red – either of which would have been a far better point to end at.

Set List:
The Hands of Man
Here Is Your Paradise
Missing You
Sailing Away
Suddenly Love
Pure Joy / Living on the Island / When I Think of You / A Night on the River
It’s Never Too Late
It’s Me (And I’m Ready to Go)
Let It Be (Beatles cover)
You Were Always on My Mind (Gwen McCrae cover)
The Light on the Bay / Have a Care
Go Where Your Heart Believes
Lonely Sky
Be My Valentine
On This Day
Spanish Train
When Winter Comes
The Road to Freedom
In a Country Churchyard
The Tower
Transmission Ends
Ship to Shore
The Snows of New York
We’ve Got the Money
Borderline
A Spaceman Came Travelling
Don’t Pay the Ferryman
High on Emotion
The Lady in Red
Africa (Toto cover)
Patricia the Stripper