Sophie Ellis-Bextor has an alarming idea. “We’ve got an album coming out, and it would be amazing for first week sales if I died… and then came back to life,” she chirpily tells the bemused crowd assembled within KOKO’s theatrical walls. It might be a slightly extreme way to promote Ellis-Bextor’s forthcoming album Perimenopop - released this Friday and the reason for tonight’s gathering - but you can forgive the singer for having murder on her mind.
Since the mind-boggling resurgence of the now-46-year-old’s 2001 hit Murder on the Dancefloor (a re-upped Number Two spot on the UK singles chart last January, followed by a year-end placing as the biggest song by a British female solo artist globally), Ellis-Bextor’s star has re-risen for a whole new generation. She’s clearly game to jump on the rollercoaster, too. A glitzy disco throwback to her early days, Perimenopop - played front to back tonight for the first time - is designed to scratch the same glossy itch as her turbo-hit. She assures us that initial plans were in the works long before Barry Keoghan’s naked Saltburn boogie was but a glint in director Emerald Fennell’s eye, but the confluence most certainly doesn’t hurt.
