On Thursday night, I went to see The Trevor Horn Band at London's Shepherd's Bush Empire. A tantalising bill that promised not only the assembled band of legends that Trev commands (Trevor, Stephen Lipson, Lol Creme, Geoff Downes, Ash Soan, Luis Jardim, Phil Palmer, Julian Hinton, Simon Bloor, Kirsten Joy, Kate Westall, Jamie Squire) but the mighty Seal on vocal duties.
After an awkward support act (Will Heard - nervy, beset by audio problems), the band took to the stage and kicked off with an instrumental version of "Welcome To The Pleasuredome', followed by "Living In The Plastic Age". after a couple more songs, Seal took the stage (By 'eck, that man is buff!!) and proceeded to apologise that he would not be performing due to having a severe case of flu and his voice was shot to bits. He was desperately sad to pull out, as were we all, but the very fact he came on stage, explained and apologised garnered him a huge round of applause.
The show, as they say, did carry on and it was a night of classic hits from the stables of most on the stage. 'Slave To The Rhythm' (with both vocals and live drums totally nailed), 'Video Killed The Radio Star', 'Rubber Bullets', 'Why', 'I'm Not In Love', 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' (preceded by a version of Yes' 'Soon'), 'Two Tribes', The Power Of Love' (sung by Gabrielle Aplin, who did a recent cover), 'Prayer For The Dying', 'All The Things She Said' and many more. A veritable smorgasbord of hits, played deftly and expertly and not a bum note in sight.
Aside from the obvious disappointment of not seeing/hearing Seal perform live, and Trevor once again dodging anything from 'Drama', it was another top night out with this great band, littered with jokes and anecdotes and general bon viveur!
Prog magazine also did a review, with some pics, here...
http://prog.teamrock.com/reviews/2015-03-06/first-look-trevor-horn-band
Next up for me is Steven Wilson this coming Thursday for the first date of his HCE tour. Cannot wait for that!!
Then it's Adam Ant in April, Heaven 17 in May and Foo Fighters, Iggy Pop and Royal Blood in June!