Another month, another trip to see Kylie’s Aphrodite – Les Folies spectacle. While the tour juggernaut rumbles on non-stop around the globe (currently in Australia), the UK had a chance to relive the spellbinding blitz of colour and Kylie songs in a one-night only, 3D screening of the show on Sunday. Showing in selected cinemas as well as television channel Sky 3D, Aphrodite – Les Folies 3D really did bring something else to the Kylie event party. And I didn’t think that was possible, seeing as the night out at the O2 Arena back in April was something of a very special evening.

But yet, the film screening offered something spectacularly different, but not necessarily better, to the live night. The 3D glasses worked for a start, and right from the word go, it was easy to see what the multiple 2D and 3D cameras had captured. The titles and overlaying graphics really did seem to float into the auditorium. Working best on wide shots showing the enormous and elaborate stage, the catwalk, and the audience, the 3D elements really did make you think that the cinema screen was sunk into the wall a long way back.

Sweeping and long shots worked especially well, too, and the sumptuous costumes were brought into even more life as they brushed past the cameras. And, as you’d expect from such a screening, Kylie literally was larger than life in front of your eyes, her sparkling costumes even more colourfully radiant than they were on that evening back in April. Filmed over 11 and 12 April at the O2 Arena in London (the week after I saw it), the edit cleverly tricked you into thinking it was one night.

Showcasing a Kylie concert at its absolute best, Aphrodite – Les Folies 3D was a cinematic triumph, but one that missed the atmosphere of the live night (you were never going to get an atmosphere from around 20 viewers). No cuts ensured all the hits were there, too – the TV version had four songs chopped out to fit the broadcast slot. And the water fountain finale was as stunning as it was on the night itself. All in all, a fantastic couple of hours of spectacular escapism – one of the things a Kylie concert is supremely good at.

[Image: Kylie.com]

She didn’t disappoint. But then was she ever going to? I’ve seen Kylie on tour seven different times (and therefore seven different shows) and as Aphrodite – Les Folies was billed as her biggest and most extravagant show of her career, there was a lot to look forward to. I was a little perturbed by having to go to the O2 last night at first, largely because it’s such a big venue, and our seats weren’t near the front by any means. But, there was no reason to be apprehensive – the enormous scale of the stage, catwalk, projection screens and yes, those 30ft high fountains ensured everyone could see what was going on.

Rising from a golden shell, Kylie’s entrance was, as ever, well staged and more than a little camp, but from the moment she put a diamond-encrusted high heel on the vast temple-style stage, she didn’t put a foot wrong. From riding in a chariot pulled by muscled ‘slaves’, to flying on an angel with the most enormous feathered wings, suspended by heavy cables, this show was something else, and unlike anything or any Kylie show I had seen before. Old songs, new songs, tilting stages, coloured feathers, Busby and Berkeley-styled songs, a rock-inspired version of Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (probably the lowest point of the night), it was all there.

But nothing could beat the finale. Bidding the audience the traditional pre-finale goodbye, she returned in a gold bathing cap and matching cape to synchronised swimmer projections and slowly bubbling fountains, which erupted during On A Night Like This (particularly apt, I thought) but really came to life in All The Lovers. Squirting jets high into the arena, their eruptions were actually audible, and with laid down dancers suddenly rising from the small circular pool at the end of the heart-shaped catwalks, it all added up to a most spectacular finish, and one that I’ll remember for an awfully long time.

A fan of more almost 25 years, the spectacular Aphrodite – Les Folies marks a high in the career of Minogue, and rightly so. With the show going to the US, it’s a shame the water elements may be lost due to staging issues. Like a Las Vegas revue, it deserves the full staging and its breathtaking effect, and leaves the audience gasping for more, and leaving with memories of a very, very special evening.

[Image: Jelena Rudi/Kylie: Aphrodite World Tour Facebook page]

Kylie‘s been a bit of media darling on BBC radio recently. In the autumn she did a three-song live acoustic set for Radio 1′s Live Lounge, and last Wednesday, she was at the Beeb’s Maida Vale studios to perform a five-song, 20-minute set in the same style. While the first clutch of songs featured a beautiful torch song-style cover of Hurts’ Wonderful Life, the second featured no reinterpreted songs by other artists, but highlights from the Australian wonder’s 23-year musical career.

In front of an invited studio audience (I applied for tickets but was unfortunately unfortunate), ‘Min’ performed a lounge style version of Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, an orchestral variation of All The Lovers, a string-drenched haunting of Confide In Me, and rousing interpretations of In My Arms and new single Better Than Today. The first set of tracks for Radio 1 are the B-sides to Better Than Today (out 6 December), so fingers crossed this latest set get released, too.

Kylie also confirmed plans to release a whole album in the acoustic style next year. With pitch perfect vocal delivery and a stripped-down feel, it should be a belter. These two live sets have proved that the songs stand up on their own, without squelchy synths and multi-layered backing. If you missed the fantastic Maida Vale set, you can watch them on BBC Red Button until tomorrow, or alternatively, catch them on YouTube or at the BBC’s Radio 2 Ken Bruce clips page for the next 2 days.

Not released until 25 September, Get Outta My Way must be a contender for the best Kylie single of recent years. Once it’s lodged in your head, it refuses to go away. And although she’s used lighting effects before in her video clips, this film for the Aphrodite-sourced track uses human-sized magic light tables and firework-type projections to great effect (this is a preview, catch the glorious full-length 3 minute, 52 second video here). So, will catchy song + brilliant video = hit? Here’s hoping.

Here it is then. All three minutes and 22 seconds of Miss Minogue’s new chartbuster and the first flourish of new output from the Kylie camp. Less listens are needed than was the case with 2 Hearts to accept that it’s a polished, pure pop, glossy sound. A fantastic, summery-sounding track, it’s a much better ‘comeback’ single than the 2007 effort and is the type of sound that Kylie does best. Could that chorus also be just the slightest bit anthemic in a live later life? Premiered on radio all across the world today, All The Lovers is released digitally on 13 June (a physical and digital bundle follows on the original 28 June release date). The 12-track Aphrodite album hits stores on 5 July.

After three years away, how exciting is this?

Only one week to go!

Some said it would never happen. Others, that it’s too little, too late. Whatever the reasoning behind The One’s disastrous non-physical release and promotion, the video for the single has finally surfaced. And it’s really rather good.

Granted, on first watch, it appears to have been made for 1p and looks like a bootleg, but on repeated viewings, it works its magic. The pulsating backgrounds, and zooming in and out Kylies suit the style of the song very well, and it’s simple in its subdued palette with flashes of technicolour brilliance.

The art deco and Fifties styling work well, too. I’d even go as far as to say that it’s probably the best video from the X campaign singles (not to mention ‘the one’ that fits in with the X image the best), although WOW will remain a favourite, if only for its I Lost My Heart to a Starship Trooper overtones.

But, it’s not enough to save the single’s chart performance. Creeping in at a lowly 36, the download-only release has soon slid down the placings. It could have been so different. Undoubtedly (and deservedly), a misguided Parlophone should have used this storming remix version to kick the whole X campaign off. It would have then started with a very big bang, rather than now be going out with a very tiny whimper.

A visionary YouTuber saw the potential months ago. When I first saw the clip below, I genuinely thought that Apple had picked up on the song. Perfectly synched and with the bright 1980s colours that (the decade that X evokes tries to evoke most), who’s to say what would have happened if this had been the first shot from X’s US cannon.

After all, the coolness of the Apple and iTunes association did wonders for Coldplay recently, helping shoot them to the top of the charts across the Atlantic. There’s yet more synchronicity, too. The British music makers and Kylie share the same record company. The track has had repeated plays on my iPod this week; with a potential Apple association like this, who’s to know what could have been?

Part of that treatment is of course, the ubiquitous set of remixes. Mostly, the majority of remixes on a single (or in modern pop parlance, download) are rubbish, all dancefloor filler, only appealing to clubbers and not those of us who only wave their hands in the air when saying goodbye to someone. It will, somewhat obviously, go down a storm in the gay clubs, but will it be a summer smash?

Popjustice is campaigning the track, and so in good jumping on the bandwagon fashion, I’ve pinched their clever widget, as I like it a lot, too. I don’t know about ‘one of the most beautiful and captivating pieces of electronic music you’ll hear in 2008,’ but as the high-camp album version (also produced by The Freemasons) got such a favourable response, this remix should do equally well.

(Bah, spoilsports! You’ll have to click on the Popjustice link above to hear the remix, as Parlophone have made this player only feature recent Kylie tracks.)

And, perhaps as a masterstroke, Parlophone have chosen a 28 July release date, just a few days into the tiny stars (broken) 7-night KylieX2008 tour residency at The O2.

‘Love Me, Love Me, Love Me,’ Kylie coos in the chorus. Applicable to both the singer and the song, I already do…