Reunion concerts – what a wonderfully predictable category in pop music. Bands that fall into each other’s arms again after years, including the disaffected band member. Old hits polished to a shine. Sometimes a new song. And hop, even though it was really over, we went out together again for the well-paid reunion, for the teenagers from then and their children. See The Police. Fleetwood Mac. Black Sabbath. Go ahead.
So there is also the return of the Dolly Dots, the most popular girl group the Netherlands ever had. Angéla ‘Sjeel’ Kramer, Anita Heilker, Patty Zomer and Esther Oosterbeek, dancers in the Tros Top 50 ballet, and Ria Brieffies (singer with The Vips) and Angela Groothuizen (Howling Hurricane) let their hair, the petticoats and colored wind players dance the eighties to an unbelievable stream of disco-tinged hit songs.
The break after ten years was hard, then on October 2, 1988 in club Escape, Amsterdam. But after two reunions (1998 and 2007) he only seemed definitive with the death of Ria, one of the strongest voices, in 2009. A guest appearance by the five other Dots at the Toppers in 2016 was already a bad sign of a comeback.
Warm nostalgic party bath
And so they are again. In red jumpsuits – handsome sixties now – at the top of the show stairs, ready for the splash in the warm, nostalgic party pool of Sisters on Tourpostponed for a year due to corona. The eighties synths skip as usual in opener ‘What a night’ – at the time the last Dolly Dots song with which people hoped in vain for an international breakthrough. In Toppop stunner ‘PS’ the disco hits return to the bass line. With pop songs ‘Radio’ („everybody listens to the radio”) and ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’ the New Luxor in Rotterdam eagerly bites into the sweetness.
The hit medleys are enticing whirlpools full of retro happiness, while the Sven Hammond band closely accompanies and the audience generously accepts the wavering Dots vocals after all these years (only grande dame Angela is still an artist) and faltering choreography. How messy – this evening is mainly a collective reliving of pastel colored teenage childhood memories. Especially when the Dots have their own moments of brilliance and share personal tragedy. Such as Esther’s brain haemorrhage (“I now live on borrowed time”) or Angela’s recent divorce, with ‘Give a Girl a Break’ being the appropriate anthem.
Virtual duet with Ria
The ode to lost singing sister Rita is soulful. Especially the virtual ‘duet’ ‘Dreaming of You’ with herself on screen. And with Rita’s classic ‘All the Roses’ Angela has a strong solo. After the break, the show is stronger anyway, the Dots gain confidence, sing better and move more loosely across the stage and in post-corona euphoria, between the audience.
While first hit ‘Tell It All About (Boys)’ (1979) is wittily killed halfway through – “we’re too old for that now” – biggest hit ‘Love Me Just a Little Bit More’ is the crown on this cheerful, unpretentious show. Self-mockery puts everything into perspective anyway. Anita, who was the first to leave the band at the time: „I’m sorry. But wasn’t that crazy that I went out?”