NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2026
Given the number of eighties bands touring right now, I’d swear we were in 1985! Synth-pop icon Howard Jones has been on tour across North America with fellow New Wave band Wang Chung, ska stalwarts The English Beat, and the ever popular Modern English. The only worrying part was the on and off rain. In fact, there were plastic sheets covering all the sound equipment on the stage. The crowd, though, was not to be denied and was representing the 80s big time, with some fans digging up their old party gear for the show. We’ve covered each of these bands at least once in the last few years and we were looking forward to partying with them once again.
The emcee for the night was legendary DJ/VJ Richard Blade, now with SiriusXM hosting 1st Wave. Before the show, he was doing a meet and greet with fans over by the merch table, taking pictures and chatting. He got the crowd into an 80s mood immediately with his top five New Wave hits of each year, starting with 1980-1983. Blade even showed off his old school creds with his black and white checkered Vans sneakers!
The venue was not quite full when Modern English took the stage. With an early 5pm doors and a single queue for bag check, it took many fans almost an 45 minutes to get in. That didn’t deter frontman Robbie Grey and Modern English to put on a great set. Backed by original member bassist Mic Conroy, guitarist Gabriel Sullivan, and drummer RIc Chandler, Grey engaged with the crowd and blew through their brief set. Oddly enough, for a synth-pop band, they managed without a keyboardist. I’m assuming any keys were played on a backing track. The closed their brief set with a rousing performance and sing-along of “I Melt With You”.
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Richard Blade was back with his Top 5 New Wave Hits of each year 1984-1986. Then the English Beat took the stage. They’ve consistently been one of my favorite acts, whether it was “Save It For Later” or “Mirror in the Bathroom” with the Beat or “Tenderness” and “Never You Done That” with General Public. The maestro Dave Wakeling, with his distinctive voice, has always been the consummate performer and, with just a five song set, each song was a banger. However, Wakeling seems to have lost a step. I’ve always worried that the favorite bands of my youth would lose it at some point and, unfortunately, I think we’ve hit that with this band. Wakeling’s voice is no longer nearly as strong as it used to be so Antonee First Class and the rest of the band had to help quite a bit with the singing. I sincerely hope he was just sick and not himself but I don’t know if that’s reality. I hate to say it but, at some point, I’d rather remember my favorite bands at their best. Cheers to Mr. Wakeling and I only wish him the very best.
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After Richard Blade completed his Top 5 New Wave songs for 1987-1989, Wang Chung took the stage. Every time I see Wang Chung, I’m reminded again that they were not just a one hit wonder, even though I was less familiar with the opening song “Wait”, a track from the movie To Live and Die in LA. Lead vocalist/guitarist Jack Hues did make me laugh when he told the story about how they were asked to write the music for the movie and were asked specifically to NOT write a song called “To Live and Die in LA”, which they promptly did! Along with founding member Nick Feldman, keyboardist and Buffalo native Dave Schulz and drummer Josh Thompson, they quickly showed what made them so popular back in the 80s. However, as they did the last time I saw them, they played a cover of The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go”. With only six songs in their set, I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have picked one of their other singles or even a deep cut.
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As the sun set over ArtPark (we couldn’t actually see the sun because it was overcast), Howard Jones entered stage right, keytar in hand and all decked out in a fur lined jacket and sunglasses with lasers beaming out of the top. What an entrance!! He kicked off his set with “Stand Up”, a new single released last month from his upcoming album Global Citizen! As his eighteenth studio album, this shows how prolific he has been with producing new material throughout his career.
After “New Song”, he played “Like to Get to Know You Well” but seemed to have a coughing fit and joked afterwards that he had swallowed too many flies! As always, a funny guy!
His set comprised of four songs from Dream Into Action, two each from Human’s Lib and Cross That Line, and one each from One to One and Transform. While Howard Jones was the headliner, on a tour with four bands, it’s hard to play a full set and Jones’ was only eleven songs long, meaning he wasn’t even able to play all his hits! Favorites like “Pearl in the Shell” and “Hide and Seek” were left off the setlist. That being said, Jones was in fine form (outside of the brief coughing) and showed he can still hit the high notes! He closed the show with an encore of, what else, “Things Can Only Get Better”. In our current state of affairs, I sure hope so.
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This doesn’t really apply to Howard Jones since he tours regularly but, while these multi-band 80s tour are great for getting back into your favorite New Wave bands and reliving some memories, they’re probably not great for those hardcore fans that go to every show and can only hear the biggest hits over and over. I understand that bands need to make general audiences happy in order to make touring viable but I can only hope that they set aside some time for the occasional small show or tour that will bring in their biggest fans and maybe surprise them with the occasional deep cut.