HAVE YOU CONFESSED YET?

On Sunday we saw Madonna for the last time at Wembley.

When I first saw it I thought it wasn't as good as the RE-INVENTION Tour but now I have seen it 3 times I find... I've changed... my mind (see what I did there?) There is a unity to the show which effortlessly segues into each new phase. The RE-INVENTION tour had some dizzying highs but it also had the slight longeur of "Hanky Panky" and "Deeper And Deeper" as well as the "Paradise (Not For Me)" segment which had 2 dancers on swings. But CONFESSIONS flows from song to song and conjured up some amazing imagery to go with them, making the show a real multi-media event.

I have mentioned a few highlights already in my first blog so here are a few more: The great sounding LIKE A VIRGIN with great stabs of synth as M clamboured aboard a rotating saddle and pole twirling around a platform above the audience

ISAAC with it's galloping dance pulse and the haunting vocal of Yitzhak Sinwani - who would have thought this track would be one of the standouts? The film of a trapped eagle being set free was echoed on stage by a caged shrouded woman who, when released from her cage, throws off her cloak to show she is a glittering belly dancer who runs and dances with wild abandon.

SORRY absolutely shook the Arena and it was nice to hear Neil Tennant's vocal lifted from the PSB remix used as the intro.

The glorious guitar thrash of I LOVE NEW YORK with the blinding white strob lighting and minimalist NY skyline.

The lovely version of PARADISE (NOT FOR ME) sang as a duet with Yizhak against a lovely film backdrop of a cherry blossom tree shedding it's petals against a darkening sky. This song obviously means a lot to M as she has included it in the last 3 tours.

HUNG UP brought the evening to a explosive close though I still yearn for the sheer optimistic, tear-spangled joy that was HOLIDAY which closed the RE-INVENTION tour.

It is being filmed tonight and tomorrow for showing on NBC and no doubt a subsequent DVD release but M must be experienced live if only to feel the sheer energy she puts out that is still travelling when it hits the back wall.

It's laughable really that the Catholic Church were up in arms about the use of the huge mirrored cross she appeared on while singing LIVE TO TELL (my Disco Jesus moment) while ignoring the context the song was set against, the screens showing the faces of children in Malawi and numbers spinning ever upwards from 0 to 12 million which is the UN estimate of AIDS orphans in Africa.

Added to this, the wonderful dancehall style SORRY video which intercut the posturing faces of Bush, Nixon, Blair, Condelezza Rice, Kohmeini, Cheyney, Hitler, Ahmadinejad, Sadam Hussein, The Pope, Rumsfeld, Mussolini, Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il etc. with the words DON'T TALK DON'T SPEAK and you have an evening to make you think as well as dance.
You haters can say whatever you damn well want to... ain't no shifting me from my love of her.