Lionel Richie rebounds from recent health woes to triumph in Toronto
· Toronto Sun
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Lionel Richie with Earth, Wind & Fire
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Scotiabank Arena
Saturday night
RATING: ***1/2 (3.5 out of four)
After a rough start to his Sing a Song All Night Long co-headlining tour with Earth, Wind & Fire, R&B veteran Lionel Richie made it to Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Saturday night.
And then some.
The 77-year-old smooth-sounding crooner seemed to get more and more energy — and applause — as the night went on, and he certainly didn’t try to hide the fact that he had been sick, drinking Pedialyte on stage a couple of times to keep his sugar and electrolyte levels up after dehydration was reportedly to blame for his earlier health issues.
“I could do a commercial for Pedialyte,” Richie joked later in the show, long after opening the night with Hello and Running With the Night .
Needless to say, Richie was in good, chatty form and didn’t shy away from what happened.
Dizziness on stage
In case you missed it, at the opening night this hits-heavy trek on June 24 in Minnesota, Richie experienced some dizziness during the song Dancing On The Ceiling that led him to sit down on stage and end the show after about an hour, plus have a subsequent hospital stay, and postpone two tour dates in Chicago and Columbus on June 26 and 27, respectively.
Richie resumed performing in Pittsburgh on June 30 and clearly came to have have fun in Toronto, whose audience he later thanked for making him feel so at home.
“Strange things happened to me last week,” Richie said. “I learned something. All you have to do is just get sick — one time — and all of your fans they have a remedy to what’s wrong with me. Some of them I loved. The ones I’m going to tell you, scared me to death.”
First, there was the female fan who suggested he’d hit his best-before date.
“There was one lady who said to me, ‘Lionel, these things happen to you when you turn 80!’ I’m NOT 80!”
Then the woman who wanted him to take transportation on stage.
“I bought my husband a scooter,” related Richie of what she said. “And you don’t have to run across the stage, you can just ride on the scooter.”
Then there was the third lady with an unusual suggestion.
“She said just put castor oil right behind both ears,” Richie said. “But I feel like I’ve come from the other side back over here to say tonight is going to be the greatest night we ever did!”
Here’s one suggestion Lionel: Maybe lay off the leather jackets for now.
They look cool on stage in various bright colours (the black one aside) as you changed both off and onstage into them, but they have to be hot to wear as you often wiped sweat from your brow with a towel.
Clothing aside, Richie and five-piece band put on a crowd-pleasing show brimming with hits — solo ( You Are , Dancing on the Ceiling , Truly, Say You, Say Me , All Night Long ), duets like Lady (with a virtual Kenny Rogers) and Endless Love (with the females in the audience subbing for Diana Ross) and the ensemble USA For Africa song, We Are The World .
Then there was all of the Commodores material that went over really big — Easy , Sail On , and Three Times a Lady — with Richie playing a white piano with a clear top that lit up with tiny lights as the various steps on his huge stage did — and later the dance tunes medley, Fancy Dancer/Sweet Love/Lady (You Bring Me Up) and the granddaddy of them all, Brick House .
Pays tribute to Commodores bassist
At the end of the night, Richie dedicated the concert and the tour to Commodores bassist-co-founder Ronald LePread, whose death at the age of 75 was May 30.
Co-headlining with Richie was funk-soul-R&B veterans Earth, Wind & Fire with the remaining original trio of bassist Verdine White, 74, vocalist-percussionist Philip Bailey, 75, whose beautiful falsetto remains intact, and percussionist-vocalist Ralph Johnson, 75, corralling a band of a dozen talented players including a three-man horn section and Bailey’s son Oshunde, one of two backup singers.
The group, decked out in various versions of red sequined-and-black clothes, opened their hour-long set with Shining Star and followed up with other danceable hits like Serpentine Fire , Sing a Song , their cover of The Beatles Got to Get You Into My Life , and That’s the Way of the World , Fantasy alongside ballads like Reasons and After the Love Has Gone .
But it was the show-ending, hip-wiggling trio of Boogie Wonderland , Let’s Groove and September that finally got the audience on its feet and staying there.
Lionel Richie set list
Hello
Running With the Night
Easy
Se La
Stuck on You
Sail On
You Are
Dancing on the Ceiling
Three Times a Lady
Fancy Dancer /Sweet Love/Lady (You Bring Me Up)
Lady
Truly
Endless Love
Brick House
Say You, Say Me
We Are the World
ENCORE: All Night Long
Earth, Wind & Fire setlist
Shining Star
Let Your Feelings Show
System of Survival
Serpentine Fire
Sing a Song
Got to Get You Into My Life
Reasons
After the Love Has Gone
That’s the Way of the World
Fantasy
Boogie Wonderland
Let’s Groove
September