REVIEW: FORMERLY OF BUCKS FIZZ @ CREWE LYCEUM THEATRE

It  hardly seems possible that it was a full 35 years ago that a “silly little song” (Cheryl Baker’s words, not mine) beat the odds and won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, 1981. Nobody guessed at that time that the performers who were put together specifically for the contest under the name Bucks Fizz, would go on to have several top ten hits during a five year period ruling the charts.  Since that time the fortunes of Bucks Fizz have been up and down, amid in fighting among the band and with several different versions of the  group going out resulting in litigation over the name. Lead singer Bobby G now owns the rights to the group name and his own version of the group is still performing. However, the most recognisable incarnation to the public go out under the somewhat unwieldy moniker of Cheryl, Mike & Jay Formerly Of Bucks Fizz plus Bobby McVay. The aforementioned Bobby McVay being imported from Britain’s 1983 Eurovision entry Sweet Dreams, and looking to all intents and purposes a doppelganger for the original Fizzy Bobby.

Heading to the beautiful Crewe Lyceum Theatre, it is fairly full of a wide age range,  most noticeably peopled though by 50 and 60 somethings. A live band have been ditched in favour of the much cheaper backing tapes.  A sad fact of many tours today and I think adds an undue touch of karaoke about the proceedings, robbing the occasion of a live event status.  But that is just a personal quibble, and had I been in charge of making the tour pay its way is no doubt a decision I might have been forced into myself.   Amid much audience fervour the fab four bound onstage with their last top ten hit from 1983, the infectious tribal drum beat of “New Beginning (Mamba Seyra)”.  We were all encouraged to do the arm movements from the video and everyone was in good spirits, not least it seems our four Fizzers.  And so began two hours of album tracks, solo spots and of course the cream of their 1980s hit factory.  “Piece Of The Action” was the second song on the menu,  the follow up single to the Eurovision hit.  My eye was drawn throughout the song to Jay Aston’s totally underwhelming efforts to reproduce the distinctive choreography of the video. I could almost feel her internally rolling her eyes thinking “Oh no not again” such was her lack of on stage energy for the piece.  However Miss Aston warmed up nicely as the evening progressed,  possessing perhaps the strongest voice of the evening in solo efforts such as “Great Expectations”,  a ballad from a musical about Marilyn Monroe she had been ‘involved with’ and of course the synth power ballad “When We Were Young” which surely has taken on a new meaning for the group who are now all in their 50s or early 60s.  The group though are definitely at their best when delivering four part vocal harmonies and nowhere was this more apparent than their 1986 single “Keep Each Other Warm”. Although it stalled at #45 in the charts of the time,  it remains one of their most powerful singles and is perhaps the follow up Christmas hit they never had.  Some form of winter lurgy was affecting the group which made for a few bum notes during the evening occasionally, but the four did well to give as good a vocal performance as they did under the circumstances. That they could deliver a quality show whilst struggling vocally did them all much credit.

Much of the focus pulling during the show was from the groups ‘cheeky chappy’,  Mike Nolan.  He is both the biggest liability and greatest assest to the current incarnation.  There is no doubt that his camp personality and ‘I’m only here for a laugh’ persona won over the audience from the beginning. But there are times when he reminded me of those sketches in The Generation Game where a member of the public is pitched into a routine dressed in an ill-fitting costume and is pulled about by the pros to get them through to the end.  And frankly he needs to lose his beer belly if he wants to cut it as a pop star these days.  But vocally he is still strong,  he struggled a bit during his greatest moment to shine “Now Those Days Are Gone” thanks to his chest infection but despite moments of amateurism and sometimes ill advised compere gags, he can pull it out of the bag when needed.  I think the word 'discipline' is key here and there isn’t that much. The newest member Bobby McVay is from what little we heard of his solo voice, another vocal force to be reckoned with.  We got his Sweet Dreams number “I’m Never Giving Up” but I feel he could do with another major solo moment to balance the show out a bit.  He did add some nice vocal harmony to Mike’s country number “Rose Of Cimarron” from his new solo album – yes, they have all got solo albums out these days.  Lucky us.

Cheryl Baker’s high profile presenting career in the 1990s make her the most instantly recognisable face of all the members. The Essex girl with the lovely smile has established herself a firm fan favourite.  She possesses a terrific pop voice too,  as was evident on one of my favourites of the Fizz’s rockier singles “Rules Of The Game”, not to mention the album track “Oh Suzanne” to name but two.  Her infectious enthusiasm for the songs helped carry the evening and added much warmth to the show. Jay may be the stylish class of the show and Mike its clown,  but Cheryl is most definitely its beating heart.

As the evening drew to a close,  a crowd pleasing 80s medley played right into the hands of those of us who were around at the time. Transporting us back to a time of Lionel Ritchie,  Dexys Midnight Runners and Bon  Jovi to much relish from the audience, by now on their feet.   But there was only ever going to be one way to bring the show to a close.  And that is by delivering the two songs that have become iconic to the history of Bucks Fizz.   Namely, their biggest selling single ever “The Land Of Make Believe” followed quickly by the Eurovision winner “Making Your Mind Up”.   It was the perfect end to our trip down memory lane. The entire show is a reminder that the Bucks Fizz recorded catalogue – so brilliantly written and produced by Andy Hill  – is woefully overlooked.  It contains the sort of quality pop that a lot of artists would kill for.  There was a feeling that the group yearned for the heady days of 1981 once more,  and in that they were most certainly not alone on a wet Sunday evening in Crewe.  As we all filed out into the night, everyone was certain this land of make believe was a place we’d all be returning to.

REVIEW: RONNIE SPECTOR @ BUXTON OPERA HOUSE

It is perhaps both fortunate and unfortunate that Ronnie Spector’s first major record release became one of the greatest pop records ever released.  How do you follow that?  With some difficulty, but that hasn’t stopped her trying over a career that is into its fifth decade.  As one third of The Ronettes, and its defining voice,  Ronnie was a major brick in future husband Phil Spector’s legendary Wall Of Sound.  Her recording career since then has been sporadic, but with each subsequent release the critics have praised her magnificent vibrato voice,  one of those once in a lifetime vocal styles that can only ever belong to an original.

The diminutive Ronnie, framed by a birds nest wig, bounded onstage to a very warm welcome at the Opera House in Buxton,  belting out her hit anthem “Baby I Love You”.  Now aged 72,  she has lost none of the girlish enthusiasm that was evident when the record was originally released in 1963 as she weaved her magic on the Derbyshire crowd.  Backed by four excellent musicians, and three beehived Ronettes, the audience were treated to a whistle-stop tour of her musical career. This included some numbers from her latest album English Heart,  a tribute to the artists of the British invasion of America  in the 1960s.

A surprise from the audience was the sudden appearance of Dave Berry who had appeared with The Ronettes on UK shows back when they were high on the charts,  he belted out his own hit “Little Things” much to the delight of Ronnie.  But it was the famous Spector voice that we had all come to hear and we got it straight down the line. From the wistful “Walking In The Rain” to the stomping rock beat of “(The Best Part Of) Breakin’ Up”  Ronnie ploughed through her back catalogue like a seasoned pro. A version of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” has been in the repertoire since the very beginning and echoes a time when The Ronettes danced at the Peppermint Lounge,  looking way older than they were, waiting to be discovered.  Ronnie casually mentions artists who wrote songs for her, the likes of George Harrison and Harry Nilsson,  showing the kind of pedigree she has among her peers. Ronnie’s voice is as unique and wonderous as it ever was,  able to show a range of emotions such as her Bee Gees cover “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?” which she dedicated to her late sister and fellow Ronette, Estelle.  This is from the latest album English Heart from which we were also treated to “I’d Much Rather Be With The Girls”, a song Keith Richards wrote on the tour bus whilst The Rolling Stones were touring with The Ronettes, along with The Dave Clark Five hit “Because”.  Ronnie clearly loves these songs,  and both the live and recorded versions are a testament to the song writing powers of this golden age and the artists who keep them alive today.  Perhaps understandably there was no mention of Phil Spector,  now disgraced but whose production and song writing genius were at the very heart of Ronnie’s chart successes.  For that story you need to read her acclaimed autobiography How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts And Madness, it’s a rock and roll tale like no other.

But of all the songs in Ronnie’s repertoire, it was the ‘boom ba boom’ drum beat opening of “Be My Baby” that caused the excited audience to reach fever pitch.  Often voted by pop archivists as one of the greatest records ever produced,  we were aware of hearing a little bit of history being recreated before us.  With everyone on their feet and singing along as one,  it was one of those spine tingling moments.  Returning to the stage to deliver wannabe Ronette, Amy Winehouse’s “Back To Black” and the final ever Ronettes recording “I Can Hear Music” (which The Beach Boys later had a hit with),  Ronnie faced a sea of hands reaching out for her.   It was clear that she loved recreating decades gone by as much as we wanted her to.  She may not be the household name that her contemporaries Tina Turner and Cher became,  but Ronnie Spector has more than earned her legendary status in the music industry.   The Ronettes induction into The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame was well overdue, and now stand tall among the greatest recording artists of all time.  For those of us who experienced Ronnie Spector in Buxton there can never be any doubt about this lady’s pedigree.  A star.

REVIEW: JACKIE THE MUSICAL @ THE REGENT, STOKE

I am at the time in my life when nostalgia is an ever growing comfort,  as my body ages and the world around me changes, I take pleasure in memories of the past. A time we all perceive I suppose as generally being simpler and happier. Thus the music of the 70s and 80s is particularly potent for me, as those were the decades where I first discovered pop music – principally through sitting in front of the telly on a Thursday night viewing Top Of The Pops.  In the mid-70s this would mean a wealth of glam rock bands such as The Sweet and Slade, with heart-throbs of the day being David and Donny.  No surnames are necessary if you lived through it!  So when a musical comes along purporting to celebrate this very era,  I naturally have to sit up and listen.

In this case, the pivot is the legendary teenage girls magazine Jackie.  Between 1964 and 1993 the magazine dispensed love advice through photo strips, produced pin ups of the latest music sensations and generally offered solutions to problems any teenage girl might have.  It has manifested itself into a cult piece of nostalgia with compilations of the magazine being released each Christmas in a hard back book and CDs full of music from when the magazine was at its peak – the 1970s.  So the brand name is instantly recognisable to a generation in middle age, and they turned out in force in Stoke, ready to relive the decade that taste forgot.

Jackie is a 54 year old divorcee with a teenage son who finds boxed up back issues of her namesake magazine whilst getting ready to downsize.  As she casts her mind back to the days when she purchased said magazine,  she connects to her teenage self who materialises to offer advice from the sidelines, albeit love advice based on what she had read in Jackie.  So the scene is set for older Jackie to try and find a path to love once more aided – or hindered – by those around her whilst justifying herself to the teenage apparition.

Well, on paper it sounds pretty lame I agree, but the thing is it works.  Principally because this show knows exactly where it is aiming its music and gags:  those that were there and have lived,  and understand every moment of her self doubt, regret and love of 1970s fashions and sounds.

Janet Dibley doesn’t possess the strongest voice of the night, but manages to convince as the decades challenged eponymous heroine,  and gives us a rounded character that the audience readily relate to.  Daisy Steere brings a cheeky innocence to the younger Jackie,  but the main hit of the evening seemed to be Michael Hamway as Jackie’s 19 year old son David.  His infectious energy, fine rock voice and thrusting hips made his version of T-Rex’s ‘Twentieth Century Boy’ perhaps the highlight of the evening.   Bob Harms as sexy club owner Frankie gets a rousing cheer as he launches into ‘Puppy Love’.  There is strong support too from Trica Adele-Turner as Jackie’s ex-husbands new squeeze and also Lori Haley Fox as best friend Jill.  Both ladies possess great charisma and can rock it with the best of them. Jackie’s love rivals, ex husband John (Graham Bickley) and internet date Max (Nicholas Bailey) are no slouches either.  Both possess fine voices and make the most of their solo chances to shine. Essentially this is an ensemble show, and everyone from dancers to band ensured it was a high energy evening to remember.  Arlene Phillips choreography echoes all the embarrassing dance moves we were all guilty of performing, with platform boots and bell bottom jeans among the hideous fashions that somehow we believed were cool.

 

Unusually, the posters do not advertise any of the songs included in the show.  As the biggest selling point this puzzled me,  but I realised when watching it that this is perhaps because quite a lot of the songs might be unrecognisable to the younger elements. There are no mega hits from ABBA or Queen for that matter. But if you were there you will have no trouble in recognising the songs. Vintage radio fodder such as as the David Essex number one ‘Hold Me Close’, The Osmonds’ ‘Crazy Horses’,  Barry Blue’s ‘Dancing On A Saturday Night’ and the frustratingly catchy Mud classic ‘Tiger Feet’.  The rousing finale of ‘No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)’ packs a mighty punch to delight the 70s hungry crowd and had them on their feet and yelling for more.

I doubt this will ever play the West End, but equally I don’t think it is meant to. It delivers to an audience who are happy to be transported back to the pop culture of 1970s Britain and recognise in the characters something of themselves.  If like me the 70s is an era of rose tinted magic, I can recommend this show wholeheartedly.

REVIEW: BARBARA DICKSON & NICK HOLLAND AT LEEK ARTS FESTIVAL

Barbara Dickson is a rare beast. An artist who wants to turn the clock back.  Ever since the heady chart topping days of ‘I Know Him So Well’ with Elaine Paige (and a video she herself admits made them look like Hylda Baker and Cynthia!) Barbara has strived to put her career back in the niche that serves her best: performing a selection of traditional and modern folk songs for discerning audiences. Barbara’s last foray into the Moorlands market town of Leek was as a relatively unknown folk singer in the early 1970s,  her set tonight for the Leek Arts Festival would not have been out of place at those shows.

First a word about the opening act Anthony Toner.  Armed with a nice line in cheeky Irish craic, Toner is very much a songwriter of note and a performer of skill.  His voice lends itself to the stories he tells of his heritage and experiences, from the passing of ‘Sailortown’ in his native Belfast to the song hijacked by the weather reports in Ulster ‘Well Well Well’, Toner is an impressive artist. Check him out at http://anthonytoner.net/ I hope he is destined for greatness.

Barbara and her keyboard collaborator Nick Holland have crafted a musical journey, and the intimate venue Foxlowe Arts Centre (affectively just a function room of a converted pub) serves this show well.  Opening with a haunting version of The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’, we were treated to a whistle stop tour of the songs that mean something to Barbara, so much so that many of them have lasted the course of Barbara’s recording career. The first song Barbara ever performed on television ‘The Rigs O’ Rye’ sounded as fresh as if she had just discovered it  the week before. Much of the material was culled from the six studio albums she has made with Troy Donockley since 2004. The contribution of Nick Holland to the shows cannot be underestimated, both vocally and on keyboards,  he made it easy to forget there were just two musicians on stage, such was the full sound these two produced.  Barbara has championed the music of Gerry Rafferty throughout her career and we were treated to a new addition to Barbara’s live repertoire, a version of Rafferty’s Humblebums track ‘Look Over The Hill And Far Away’.  There are several nods to the songs that took Barbara to the higher reaches of the charts,  ‘Another Suitcase In Another Hall’ and ‘Caravans’ whilst her award winning theatre career is represented by songs from Blood Brothers and John, Paul, George, Ringo & Bert.  Joined by Anthony Toner for a version of The Everly Brothers ‘Sleepless Nights’, there is a real sense of unique talents combining to a gorgeous whole. 

This is my thirtieth year attending Barbara Dickson’s live shows and I can categorically state that vocally she is at the top of her game.  Crystal clear with a streak of natural melancholy in its timbre,  she is an artist who can make a poor song sound great.  But when she is armed with great songs as she is here, the result is something spectacular. There is little doubt in my mind she is one of the greatest voices produced in the UK during the 20^th Century,  a world class artist whose musical path continues to delight those who walk it with her.

REVIEW: BARBARA DICKSON - MORE BRECHT THAN BROADWAY

It occurred to me recently that 2016 marks the 30^th year I have been going to Barbara Dickson’s live concerts. In that time I have seen countless performances by Barbara, some of them in the theatre, and a new boxed set from Gonzo Media celebrates her limited but very significant contribution to the theatre since 1974.

Although a little pricey at £50, the limited edition set comes with an exclusive glossy brochure featuring an introduction especially written by Barbara herself, and extracts from the original theatre programmes for all the shows represented in this collection.  But the real icing on the cake are the extensive liner notes by Barbara’s archivist Alan Clyde, who gives the collection a real sense of historical significance with his insights on all four productions.  

Getting down to the nitty gritty of the CDs themselves, they are all re-mastered in 24 bit by John Hughes. For a none audiophile like me, I take it that this means that they have never sounded so good!  As to the contents, the opening disc in the set presents Barbara’s first dalliance with the theatre from 1974 appearing for the very first time in digital form. John, Paul, George, Ringo & Bert was also the first West End play by legendary dramatist Willy Russell and centres on the fictional character of Bert (George Costigan) who acts as a Narrator as the four Beatles gather at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool in 1972 for a secret reunion gig. The original company boasted a host of young actors all starting out in their careers who have since gone onto worldwide fame: Bernard Hill (John Lennon), Trevor Eve (Paul McCartney) and future theatrical Knight Antony Sher (Ringo Starr), not to mention of course the considerable presence of Costigan, surely one of our best character actors. But as regards this CD, although George Costigan gets a look in with a Willy Russell song, the bulk of the album belongs to Barbara Dickson’s vocals as she steers a course through the catalogue of Lennon & McCartney. The pairing of ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ and George Harrison’s ‘Here Comes The Sun’ has remained a staple of Barbara’s concert repertoire to this day.  This recording is a time capsule of Barbara’s tremendous delivery of The Beatles catalogue lending her beautiful vocals to some of the twentieth century’s finest compositions. Highlights would have to be a searing 'Help' and a plaintive ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ to which Barbara adds her customary folk inflected delivery. Long overdue on CD, and even longer overdue a theatrical revival.

Next up comes the mighty Blood Brothers. What can be said about Willy Russell’s musical masterpiece, that hasn’t been echoed worldwide by critics and fans alike? I have been lucky to see Barbara playing Mrs. Johnstone on several occasions and she is the real deal. She gets to the heart of what Mrs. Johnstone is all about, giving her a dignity despite the many hardships in Mrs. J’s life but also exploring the desperation tinged with superstition that leads her to give away one of her twins. A stone in place of her heart? I don’t think so. Mrs. Johnstone wants a loving home for her children and this is her only way out in making sure they all have a mother to love them. Russell’s score bristles with brilliant songs. George Costigan is back as Mickey lamenting his ‘Long Sunday Afternoon’ whilst Andrew Schofield’s narrator brings us a sense of doom observing the ‘Shoes Upon The Table’. But again it is Barbara’s voice which long lingers on the recording. ‘Easy Terms’ and ‘Tell Me It’s Not True’ are now theatre staples but they are never heard better than on this original cast album. The arrangements in this original 1983 recording are more folk led than the electrified scoring of the Bill Kenwright production which has been running since 1987, and this simplification of the arrangements allows the songs to fully breathe. Barbara’s haunting performance earned her an Olivier Award. If Barbara’s contribution to British theatre is remembered for one thing, it is likely to be as the original, and  for many the definitive, Mrs. Johnstone.

The third CD in this set is a show that is perhaps least recognisable to the passing musical theatre fan, The 7 Ages Of Woman. Basically a production that is part theatre, part concert,  it allowed Barbara to don various guises as she acted out the seven stages of a life. Among the composers that Barbara covers are Lennon & McCartney once more, Ewan MacColl, Randy Newman, Carole King and Leiber & Stoller. Songs by Stephen Sondheim and Bertolt Brecht never made it to the CD version – rather ironically given the title of the boxed set! Barbara delivers a gorgeous acapella ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ as well as a truly memorable ‘She’s Leaving Home’ to name but two. I never saw this production but it would have been worth the price of admission alone to see Barbara as Mrs. Lovatt from Sweeney Todd giving a warning of the ‘Worst Pies In London’ (sadly not on this album).  Her performance in The 7 Ages Of Woman won Barbara a Liverpool Echo ‘Best Actress In Theatre Award’ and this CD is a marvellous taster of an eclectic show.

The final CD in the set is a production I am rather more familiar with, and a show that earned Barbara the second of her Olivier Awards – Spend Spend Spend. Composers Steve Brown and Justin Greene delivered one of the great British musicals with Barbara acting the part of the older Viv Nicholson who -  upon her husband Keith winning £152,319 on the pools in 1961 - vowed she would ‘spend spend spend’. And she did. Ending up penniless but rather more wise for the experience. It is very much a cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for, and the equally brilliant Rachel Leskovac brings out the feisty side of the young Viv. Her duet with Barbara ‘Who’s Gonna Love Me?’ as young and older Viv lament the death of her husband Keith in a car accident is one of the highlights of both the show and the album. The score is impressive throughout from the jaunty exuberance of the title track to the emotive lesson of ‘The Scars Of Love’. A classy and thought provoking example of theatre writing at its very best.

My thirty years following Miss Dickson around concert halls and theatres have provided me with many memories to cherish and this set reminds me of her Mrs. Johnstone and Viv Nicholson, performances that will linger with me for a lifetime. Along the way it also gives me a taste of celebrated performances I missed. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate my devotion to one of the best vocalists that Britain has ever produced. With only 1000 boxed sets produced, snap it up whilst you can.   

 9 / 10

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