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March 14, 2020

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Howard Jones, the MTV era icon, brought his acoustic trio to The Kent Stage last Tuesday to put a different spin on his '80s synth heavy hits.  His band features Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo) on the Chapman Stick and Robin Boult on acoustic guitar.

 

"Opening the show with "You Know I Love You, Don't You" Jones added a little bit of Elton John's "Saturday's Alright For Fighting" at the end of the song.  Jones complimented his band mates for being great musicians that had the ability to ad lib and go in any direction that he wanted to go.  

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This would happen a few times throughout the evening where Jones would throw in snippets of other songs like Joe Jackson's "Breaking Us In Two."

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Jones also told many stories as the evening progressed.  One story included the time he was set to play the Prince's Trust Concert and Mick Jagger and David Bowie wanted to play "Dancing In The Streets."  However, Bowie wasn't there to rehearse with Mick but he was.  He ended up rehearsing with Jagger which led him to say, "for forty-five minutes I felt like I was in The Rolling Stones."

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One of the highlights of the evening was a funky cover of Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy" which featured Nick Beggs on the bass guitar.

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Jones' hits like "What Is Love" and "No One Is To Blame" were scattered throughout the set.  

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He also paid homage to The Beatles as he mashed up his song "Exodus" with "Come Together" and then played the McCartney penned "Oh! Darling."

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The trio ended the set with three of Jones' biggest hits, "Life In One Day," "Everlasting Love" and the appropriately titled "Things Can Only Get Better."

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Rachael Sage opened the show with a interesting set of original tunes.  The quirky pianist/guitarist has a Tori Amos/Lisa Loeb vibe.  She is out supporting her latest release titled Character that is worth checking out. 

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Review and photos by Greg Drugan

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