‘Love Is Everything’ - P!nk at BST Hyde Park
Welcome to our British Summer Time series at London’s Hyde Park! We’ve had the pleasure of experiencing many acts at these annual events over the years, including Carole King, Phil Collins, Roger Waters, Barbra Streisand, Hannah Grace, Robbie Williams and ROE. This is the first time we’ll be covering some of the concerts, and they begin with P!nk’s second show on Sunday 25th of June.
It was a beautiful day in London. We could hear the sounds of Lyra’s set as we approached the North Entrance, where many people were sunbathing. Inside, it would be some time before we’d see a slick performance from Tinashe, with the crowd especially loving ‘Dance Like Nobody’s Watching’. There was dancing, singing and clapping along to this track, an early indicator of how engaged this audience were. Taking a walk around, chilled crowd members absorbed the impassioned set of Maddie Zahm, who graced the Rainbow stage, the biggest second only to The Great Oak Stage where the headliner would later perform.
Before we get into the meat of the music – let’s look into the facilities at BST Hyde Park. With water available free of charge and people encouraged to bring in their own bottles, sponsors American Express had thought to keep the use of plastic at these events to a minimum. Unfortunately this meant queues for these water stations were hundreds strong, as the day was warm and the air dry.
However, bins were numerous and attended to frequently, so it was easy to dispose of rubbish, general, recycling or otherwise. This didn’t stop attendees leaving vast amounts of waste behind at the conclusion of the event, but festival goers are gonna festival go. The food selection is always fantastic at BST - our choice today was Naked Bowls. Their Malaysian Bowl was superb. Toilets? Immaculate. Everyone loves a clean bathroom situation. Ok, more music?
Gwen Stefani at BST Hyde Park. Image Credit: Dave Hogan / Hogan Media.
Gwen Stefani returned to the London stage this week at BST Hyde Park for her first full set in sixteen years. Over the course of an hour and ten minutes, Stefani performed sixteen songs, with an even balance of solo hits and No Doubt classics. These included opener ‘The Sweet Escape’, getting the crowd up and dancing.
As well as her pop material, there was a fair showing of ska, with 90’s No Doubt track ‘Sunday Morning’, followed up by UK Number 2 single ‘Hey Baby’, which even included Bounty Killer’s verse performed by a member of her talented band. No Doubt’s cover of ‘It’s My Life’ by Talk Talk continued the trend before Stefani returned to her solo material with 2005 single ‘Cool’.
‘So here’s the situation – I love you.’
The crowd really did feel the love from Gwen Stefani, whose career has roots in London. More No Doubt material followed with Rock Steady singles ‘Underneath It All’ and ‘Hella Good’. Leaving the set for a costume change, the dancers owned the stage to an instrumental of ‘Harajuku Girls’ from 2004’s ‘Love. Angel. Music. Baby.’
Returning in chequered clothing to match the ska aesthetic of the stage, Stefani performed No Doubt’s biggest single. ‘Don’t Speak’ was a UK Number 1 from 1997, and a massive hit with the crowd at Hyde Park. With a trumpet performance authentically replacing the acoustic guitar solo, the band slowed down the outro of the song as the crowd hung onto every word.
Stefani remained with her solo career for the next few songs, including ‘Wind It Up’ and a version of ‘Rich Girl’ which featured special guest Eve just the day before. ‘What You Waiting For?’ still retained the urgency it had in 2004, and Stefani even had a chance to play a new single ‘True Babe’, which was warmly received by the crowd.
From this point, it was all bangers right to the end of her set. ‘Spiderwebs’ and ‘Just A Girl’ were No Doubt songs from their ‘Tragic Kingdom’ period, the latter especially got the crowd jumping. Armed with giant bananas, the dancers performed with Stefani one more time for her last song, 2005’s ‘Hollaback Girl’. Gwen Stefani was the definition of an excellent warm-up act – she played her support set like she was a headliner. The crowd were well and truly warmed up.
But it would be about an hour before P!nk would take to the stage, so surely the vibe would die down? Wrong. The secret weapon was DJ KidCutUp, who meshed tracks together the old skool way, taking beats and melodies from one song and adding a different lyric on top. The combinations surprised and challenged the crowd. It would be easy to put on a playlist of songs everyone knew, but this way, it kept everyone on their toes. Plus, it was fun!
Mixes from KidCutUp included combining Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ with Lou Reed’s ‘Walk On The Wild Side’, mashing together Fun’s ‘We Are Young’ with Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ and ‘No Diggity’ with ‘Wonderwall’. Other selections of tracks included ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Rock DJ’, ‘9 to 5’ and ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’. KidCutUp knew his audience, and so did the headliner.
P!nk at BST Hyde Park. Image Credit: Dave Hogan / Hogan Media.
‘Are you still alive out there?
After several minutes of stage silence, without warning, a Max Headroom-esque video of P!nk appeared on the screens. The broken delivery of the video gave way to the real start of the show as she proclaimed: ‘Let’s get this party started!’
Above the stage was the title of the tour – Summer Carnival, separated by a mouth that opened to reveal a waving P!nk, who, in a heart-stopping moment dropped through the air to land on the stage and begin her first number – Missundaztood’s ‘Get The Party Started’. The second verse was merged with the music of Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)’ highlighting the relevancy of an enduring classic. This went right into ‘Raise Your Glass’, taken from her ‘Greatest Hits…So Far!!!’ album from 2010, which also contained 2006’s ‘Who Knew’.
‘Look at all these beautiful people!’
The next song was ‘Just Like A Pill’, where P!nk held something up that was thrown on the stage. ‘This is your Mom? I don’t know how to feel about this.’ It was a clear plastic bag of ashes - she later said this was a first. Hearing the audience singing along to the performance of this song was a hair-raising moment, one of many in this concert. The stage was decorated with a silver palm tree, melted glittery ice cream, dazzling projections and vibrant outfits for all. All these classics had the crowd jumping, singing, and displayed everything that was essential and life-giving about the work of P!nk.
This section of the show would carry on with ‘Try’, another anthem from her sixth record, ‘The Truth About Love’ - there would be more to come from this album. The show would be split into four acts, and a dance version of 2017 single ‘What About Us’ would conclude Act I. This early showing of greatest hits happily silenced any dissenting voices heckling, ‘shut up and play the hits!’ With huge showmanship and energy, there could be not a single complaint from any audience member among the 65,000+ crowd.
‘Breathe. What do you see?’
With the Summer Carnival fully underway, the intro to Act II sought to ground the audience for the two-hour show, a spoken-word interlude allowing for a costume change. As P!nk returned to approach the rigging for the next aerial stunt out on the catwalk, she raised her hand and called a halt to the proceedings. ‘Can we reset?’ The showpiece was hanging too low to begin the segment. It took a moment, but the performance continued as planned, despite P!nk threatening to do an interpretive dance to replace the aerial work: ‘Am I a butterfly? Am I a chipmunk? What are we tonight?’
‘Alright everyone. Sexy serious. Give me your sexy serious.’ Pointing at a crowd member she said, ‘That’s not it!’
This commotion preceded an astounding performance of new track ‘Turbulence’ taken from P!nk’s latest album ‘Trustfall’. Even as she awkwardly threaded herself through the hanging ropes, she assured the crowd, ‘Go with it, it’s gonna get really good, I promise.’ And it was. This intimate choreographed performance with her dancer would end up being one of the highlights of the show as they graciously spun, hovered and danced on the catwalk and above the crowd. P!nk would be without a safety harness, only adding to the majick of the moment.
Bridging the gap between this and the next song, pianist Jason Chapman played an instrumental segment of ‘Don’t Let Me Get Me’. Always a surprise to P!nk, it was her job to guess what he was playing in exchange for a sweet reward. The 2002 single was guessed correct by P!nk, whose prize was a Snickers. She confessed to the crowd that she wasn’t doing well at guessing the songs so far.
For one song only, P!nk sat at the piano and gave a performance of a song she wish she’d written. First, she reeled off some other songs she wished she’d written – ‘Spiderwebs’, ‘Just A Girl’, ‘Don’t Speak’… She asked the crowd to give it up for Gwen Stefani.
“I also wish I wrote ‘Baby Shark’. I could buy everyone here a yacht.”
The song P!nk played was Bob Dylan’s ‘Make You Feel My Love’, later made famous in the UK by Adele. There was a mistake in this song, but she restarted the line and got it right. Prior to this, she joked that she’d only been playing piano for a couple of months. It was nice to hear her alone on this stage, even just for a minute. It felt intimate despite the presence of thousands of people.
The next song would also be piano-based, but brought back in the full band for ‘Just Give Me A Reason’, featuring a showing of Fun’s Nate Ruess via the video screens, and much audience singing along. The 2013 single from ‘The Truth About Love’ would chart at Number 2 in the UK. This went straight into ‘Fuckin’ Perfect’, the other new song released in 2010 for her Greatest Hits collection, and the crowd continued on a high.
Act II would conclude with the heavier ‘Just Like Fire’, the Top 20 hit recorded for the soundtrack to the 2016 Tim Burton film ‘Alice Through The Looking Glass’. Pyrotechnics illuminated this performance, merged with a faithful rendition of late 70’s rock classic ‘Heartbreaker’ from Pat Benatar and a blinding guitar solo from P!nk mainstay Justin Derrico.
‘How’s everyone doing so far!?’
With the band and audience riding high in Act II, the third act took a step back from the power ballads in favour of musical subtlety. After a quick tune-up with her backing singers and Derrico, the ensemble would play a stripped version of 2009’s ‘Please Don’t Leave Me’. It was a perfect song to showcase the musicianship of the vocalists especially, who were an essential component of the Summer Carnival.
‘This song fell into my lap, I did not write it.’
P!nk talked about a time when we all thought the world was ending. ‘Cover Me In Sunshine’ was a standalone single released during the pandemic and later included on P!nk’s live album ‘All I Know So Far’. As with the studio version, P!nk’s daughter Willow Sage Hart duetted with her on The Great Oak Stage. Hart has been accompanying P!nk on this song across the Summer Carnival tour and was well received in Hyde Park.
A brief interlude occurred when people began throwing items on the stage. Lots of teddy bears, and some flowers, where P!nk confessed to sending herself flowers beginning last year. She then introduced the next song, one that was written by Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit for her latest album ‘Trustfall’. It was called ‘Kids In Love’, a gorgeous song without the production weight of the poppy side to the record.
‘I don’t know, love is everything right?’
‘When I Get There’ was predominantly performed on piano and opened ‘Trustfall’. This album is full of interesting co-writes, this song was co-written with Amy Wadge by David Hodges, the keyboardist and vocalist formerly of heavy-rock band Evanescence.
After thanking the crowd, P!nk began signing jackets that people threw on the stage, using a wad of multi-coloured sharpies that came with them. Even though the show was running to a tight schedule, it was heartening to see P!nk take the time to sign these wares and hand them back to the crowd.
‘I Am Here’ was the only other song played from ‘Beautiful Trauma’ this evening, with clapping and singing along from the audience. There are many life affirming songs in P!nk’s catalogue, and this is certainly one of them.
P!nk spent some time introducing her standalone single, ‘Irrelevant’. Released in the summer of 2022, it was partly inspired by internet trolls and the dismantling of American human rights in the overturning of Roe V. Wade. It was an empowering moment to witness this song performed live to an audience full of women and young girls, in a country where abortion is still a legal right, at a time when the concept of pro-choice is challenged daily. Artists at all levels speaking about this is vital to highlighting what an injustice it is for people to face.
The first song of Act IV was ‘No Ordinary Love’, the Sade cover recorded by P!nk’s side-project with Dallas Green called You + Me. We’re still waiting for a new Sade tour! This section of the show would highlight new songs from ‘Trustfall’, including the keep-fit styled ‘Runaway’ and the title track. The latter would see P!nk’s dancers falling through the air, to be caught by a trampoline and thrust back up to their platform. P!nk herself would harness up and scale the wall to join them.
Image Credit: Dave Hogan / Hogan Media.
This went straight into ‘Blow Me (One Last Kiss)’, the lead single and UK Number 3 hit from ‘The Truth About Love’. P!nk continued to wow the audience with her powerful and iconic voice. Breaking the track down, she proceeded to introduce the band, who each took a solo over a programmed drum beat.
P!nk continued playing new songs with recent single ‘Never Gonna Not Dance Again’, featuring a colourful silhouetted animated dancer on the screens. The track was a winner for the audience, who were close to drowning the singer out with their sheer volume. Breaking the song down, P!nk used this opportunity to introduce the dancers, who each shared the spotlight.
Approaching the end of the show, ‘Last Call’ was a big song and stayed in the theme of P!nk’s feelings on the end of the world. With many of P!nk’s biggest songs in the first Act of the Summer Carnival, the show was bottom heavy and would’ve done the crowd more justice to have another classic in this spot.
‘Can we do one more? Let’s see where I land! I’m coming to see ya’ll in the back!’
But this was soon rectified. A drum beat brought in the guitar riff for ‘So What’, P!nk’s UK Number 1 from 2008. Attached to the four cranes suspended above the crowd, P!nk leapt in the air, criss-crossing thousands of people in seconds to land on several slim platforms, whilst always maintaining a high standard in her vocal delivery.
It was a terrific display of artistry and showmanship melded into one. This was the definition of ending on a high! The band gave a finale performance as P!nk thanked the audience. This reviewer is certain every single person there felt they got their money’s worth. P!nk. Long may it be our favourite colour in pop.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for our continuing series of BST Hyde Park concert reviews. Until then, keep on loving the music you love, whatever you listen to!
Image Credit: Dave Hogan / Hogan Media.
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