Stevie Wonder
Lytham Festival
3rd July 2025
Stevie Wonder landed on the Fylde Coast for a rare UK gig that proved to be an intense and emotional greatest hits set. Lifelong fan Paul Clarke was on hand to watch one of soul’s all time greats deliver a funky masterclass.
Back in the early Eighties I made a long pilgrimage from deepest Cumbria to Earl’s Court to see Stevie Wonder on his Hotter Than July tour, and on that special night he didn’t let that young Northern soul boy down. So I approached this gig on the Fylde coast decades later with some trepidation, as Stevie has always been an artist who has gone his own way. But he offered me and all the other boomers a greatest hits set of the highest quality.
As well being a musical genius, Stevie has been a lifelong political activist. So, as he was led on in his scarlet suit, images of Bob Marley and Malcolm X were picked put in diamante. It was not surprising to his hardcore fans that, before he sat at his keyboard, he stood with two of his adult kids to launch a blistering attack on world leaders – ‘all of them’ – who he says have failed to find the sort of peace he has always sought. He said Love’s In Need Of Love Today is a song that he doesn’t want to play, but his heartfelt rendition was a reminder of his core belief that music has the power to influence change.
Speaking to people in the queue beforehand, they had travelled from all over the North. The packed site went off as the reggae influenced beats of Master Blaster (Jammin’) kicked in. Stevie’s distinctive vocals were as strong as ever during this ode to Marley, who had opened for him on a US tour, and its infectious pop reggae had most of the crowd grooving along as the wind blew in off the Irish Sea.
As well as being a great pianist, people often forget that Stevie was an early adopter of synths, which helped him essentially reinvent soul in the early Seventies. A pounding Higher Ground had lost none of its power. Alongside his activism and funky tendencies, Motown alumni Stevie has always been a stellar pop writer, and I’m not ashamed to say a breezy You Are The Sunshine Of My Life brought a lump to my throat – and I wouldn’t have been alone. Stevie brought on MOBO winner Corrine Bailey Rae to duet on Everybody Is A Star as a tribute to the recently passed funk supremo Sly Stone.
Then it was time for an epic Signed, Sealed Delivered I’m Yours from the Motown album where he emerged as an artist rather than just a pop singer. Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing and a touching My Cherie Amour kept the energy up, before one of the backing singers sang Stranger On The Shore Of Love.
Stevie headed offstage to take a well earned break, and fair enough as most blokes his age are pottering around garden centres, or doing Sudoku, rather than playing to 20000 people. It was a chance for probably the tightest backing band you’ll see this year to strut their stuff as they blasted through Aretha’s Until You Come Back To Me (That’s What I’m Gonna Do), Rose Royce’s I’m Coming Down and a blistering full band workout on Contusion.
Steve was soon back with Sir Duke, I Wish and a funky Living For The City, which was about a perfect trio of soul tunes that you could wish for. As a nod to his days as Motown’s Little Stevie, he brought out his harmonica to pick out the riff for Love Me Do, calling to his drummer to add a reggae beat as everyone spontaneously sang the words. It was one of those priceless moments in your life where something shouldn’t have worked, but it did, becoming a transcendental communal experience that would live long in the memory.
Stevie has always had a schmaltzy side to his work, like Isn’t She Lovely, written after the birth of one of his daughters. Tonight, he dedicated it to all the mums and daughters in the world, but it still beautifully captures that unforgettable moment most fathers feel when they hold their child for the first time.
Stevie’s son Mandla wandered on to take lead vocals on I Can Only Be Me – but sadly he hasn’t inherited his old man’s vocal chops – before the schmaltz was dialled right up to 11 for a solo piano version the all time wedding first dance classic, I Just Called To Say I Love You. Great artists know how to close a show, and the wall of sound funk rock of an elongated Superstition prompted one overcome middle aged bloke to create his own crazy dance routine, as groups of friends of all ages blissfully danced all across the field.
Stevlan Hardawy Morris was a child prodigy signing to Motown aged 11, but as he nears the end of his illustrious career he proved that only does he have the tunes, but vocally can still hold 20000 fans enthralled. Throughout the show Stevie shouted ‘Y’all with me?’, and we were for every single glorious note.
You can follow Stevie on Facebook and Twitter.
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Words by Paul Clarke, you can see his author profile here.
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