Kylie Minogue, SSE Hydro, Glasgow, September 30
There's something of an irony that the first gazillion hits when searching online for "Kylie" are not for diminutive pop legend Kylie Minogue but for Kylie Jenner, star of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and of her own spin-off series Life Of Kylie.
A billionaire "social media personality" and listed by Time magazine as one of the most influential young people in the world, you'd be forgiven for pegging Jenner as the epitome of someone famous for being famous; of being about Instagram artifice, uncomfortable latex dresses and little else. Some had not dissimilar thoughts about Minogue 30 years ago when she went from spanner-weilding lady mechanic on Neighbours to signing record deals with Australia's Mushroom Records and the UK bubblegum pop hit-makers Stock, Aitken and Waterman. And while Jenner has plenty of time to show she can do more than smoulder and take selfies, Minogue's long tenure as a star (there's simply no other term for her, bar the "Princess of Pop") is testament to her tenacity, adaptability, warm personality and, yes, talent.
She's frequently been compared with Madonna, with hangdog tenor Rufus Wainwright once writing of the two: "Madonna subverts everything for her own gain ... She surpasses even Joan Crawford in terms of megalomania. Which in itself makes her a kind of dark, gay icon ... I love Kylie, she's the anti-Madonna. Self-knowledge is a truly beautiful thing and Kylie knows herself inside out. She is what she is and there is no attempt to make quasi-intellectual statements to substantiate it. She is the gay shorthand for joy."
Gay icon, breast cancer awareness advocate and dancing queen survivor, Minogue is a light in the dark, especially to her armies of lifelong devotees. New album Golden – released a month before her 50th birthday in May this year – is a case in point.
The follow-up to 2015's daft Christmas album (which features a take on The Waitresses' Christmas Wrapping with Iggy Pop), its central lyrical themes are heartbreak, loss and the search to find the strength to pull the pieces of yourself back together when a significant relationship has you feeling all over the place.
Now dating GQ creative director Paul Solomon, she co-wrote each of Golden's ten tracks in the wake of her break-up with ex-fiance Joshua Sasse, and you wonder if Kylie's then personal situation was a factor in her new label BMG suggesting she go over to Nashville and record a country album. In any case, it suits her, with the music more often than not finding the right balance between twang and the dancefloor. Despite the heavy personal themes, tonally Golden is optimistic and upbeat, with the likes of lead single Dancing seeing her channel a dollop of Dolly Parton's sweet grit.
When she's singing "if I get hurt again, I'd need a lifetime to repair," on banjo barnstormer Lifetime To Repair, you know she'll be OK in the end. Another stand-out is Live A Little, a song that defies anxiety about "running out of time" and those who tell her "it's too late" with irresistible beats and a voice trick where Kylie almost sounds like a slide guitar.
In glittery cowboy boots (and a variety of outfits), she recently kicked off the UK leg of this tour just as Sasse was getting married to fellow Aussie Louisa Ainsworth. According to those who’ve seen them, these shows, while still theatrical, don’t smother the songs in spectacular antics. Instead, the songs – including a take on Fleetwood Mac's The Chain and the Human League's debut single Being Boiled, are left to carry their own light.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here