by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post
"I'M 75 and I'm alive and very thankful to be here every day, and to still be in love with life, and with you" – so began Yoko Ono at the start of her live performance at the Bluecoat last night.
It was 41 years since the avant-garde icon appeared at the very same Liverpool venue, and it had clearly given the artist cause to reflect.
What the audience got was less the "wacky Yoko" of caricature and more an uplifting journey that showed her at her very best.
She started off standing in front of a large screen showing footage of her 1967 Bluecoat performance where she requested the audience wrap her from head to foot in bandages.
Footage of Ono and John Lennon from their "bed-in" days followed; she later danced and wailed along to the video for her song Walking on Thin Ice, and showed a short documentary on her 2004 work Onochord.
When she called the audience up to dance with her to a lengthy remix of Give Peace a Chance, from children to Culture Company head honchos, they didn't need to be asked twice.
This mini-retrospective was clearly a deeply personal show.
It might be considered mawkish to be raking over her life with Lennon in such a way. As it was in Liverpool, it seemed appropriate and completely genuine to share it.
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