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Next spring sees the twentieth anniversary of Go West’s stunning debut album. Hopefully, 2005 will provide a
brilliant opportunity to celebrate one of the greatest song-writing partnerships ever, namely that of Peter Cox and Richard Drummie.
Why oh why then was tonight such a huge disappointment? There
really wasn’t that much to cheer about as almost half of the show featured badly performed renditions of other people’s songs.
On a positive note, most of the first album was delivered but a
number of firm Go West favourites were sacrificed to accommodate a ragbag of badly chosen and long forgotten songs. No we didn’t enjoy the show as much as we had hoped to.
Four songs from that 1985 album saved what was otherwise a dreary first half. The signature opener ‘Don’t look down’ followed by ‘Eye to eye’ got things off to a good start. But
things soon took a nose dive with ‘Save tonight’, a mediocre Eagle-Eye Cherry hit served up with uncharacteristic Go West mediocrity.
Hits from Terence Trent D’Arby and Prince got the same
treatment but improving on their seminal recorded performances was always going to be an impossible task. The band let themselves down badly yet the mistake was choosing to play this material in the first place.
There was nothing wrong with it at all musically but there was nothing right about it either. Were we watching some soulless function band at a holiday camp?
The worst moment of the night was the
repeat offence of ‘Bad case of loving’ which thankfully brought the first half to a close. Tonight’s performance of the song managed to deteriorate further on that of Peter with the Hadley band back in January.
Some good ground was made up in the second half with ‘S.O.S.’, ‘Call me’ and ‘The King of wishful thinking’ but Maroon 5 (‘She will be loved’) I ask you? Don’t get me wrong, it’s
a great great song but frankly guys we don’t wanna hear it from you. With ‘We close our eyes’ ending the night on a positive, we left wondering why such a talented and tightly-knit band of pros as this should
feel they needed to ditch that which they do best?
Set List- first half: 1. Don’t look down; 2. Eye to eye; 3. Save tonight (a); 4. Innocence; 5. Sign your name
(b); 6. All day, all night; 7. Cream (c); 8. Goodbye girl; 9. I thought I’d see you again (d); 10. Bad case of loving you (e)
Set List - second half:11. SOS; 12.
That’s what love can do; 13. Take me back to the start (f); 14. I want to hear it from you; 15. Waiting in vain (g); 16. She will be loved (h); 17. What you won’t do for love; 18. Call me; 19. The king of
wishful thinking
[Encore] 20. Ain’t no sunshine (i); 21. Faithful; 22. We close our eyes
(a) 1998 hit for Eagle-Eye Cherry; (b) 1988 hit for Terence Trent D’Arby; (c) 1991 hit for Prince; (d) hit for?; (e) 1979 hit for Robert Palmer; (f) hit for??; (g) 1977 hit for Bob Marley;
(h) 2004 hit for Maroon 5; (i) 1972 hit for Michael Jackson
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