Co-op Live, Manchester
There’s still no-one else like the 71-year-old star: she gives rambling speeches and accidentally hits someone with a recorder, but her voice punches through the chaos

Within 10 minutes of appearing on stage, Cyndi Lauper has sung about masturbation, played a tuneless recorder solo, accidentally hit a crew member with said instrument, and given a rambling speech about wrestlers, the Goonies and how, after more than 40 years in music, this will be her last tour. “I figured if I was going out,” she says while sporting a mint-green wig, “I’d go out with a bang.”

That’s certainly one way to describe the approach to the Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour, Lauper’s first (and now final) arena shows since 1987. The tour began last year in North America, although that time on the road hasn’t reined in the chaos: the show is all over the place. Along with the incident involving the recorder, Lauper is plagued by technical difficulties, poor sound that buries her voice beneath an admittedly slick band, an uneven setlist, dodgy costumes, and her own garrulous monologues.