Phil Pinder won two tickets in our Hue and Cry competition this month and he has now written a review for us of the concert.
After enduring two hours watching the eleven wannabe acts “nail it” or otherwise on the X Factor, I was looking forward to seeing two brothers from Coatbridge who made it to the summit of pop’s greasy pole in the 80s without any help from celebrity mentors, viewers’ votes or exposure to a TV audience of millions simply by being marginally less mediocre than the competition.
And the Kane brothers, Pat and Greg, better known as Hue and Cry did not disappoint me, or the rest of their audience at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, on Sunday night. With a mixture of songs from their new album, “Hot Wire”, and classics drawn from their career spanning an incredible 29 years, there was something for everybody. The predominantly middle-aged audience gave a warm welcome to their heroes, with appreciative, but warm and heartfelt, applause for the first few numbers which opened with an energetic performance of the current single “Duty to the Debtor”. Only when the brothers performed their classic “Looking for Linda” were the shackles of the audience’s Edinburgh reserve cast aside, and a few tentative steps in the aisles were taken. By the time they performed their other big 80s hit, “Labour of Love”, we were positively rocking.
Whilst Greg (looking like a taciturn Al Murray in his red suit) was happy to play the support role on keyboard or guitar, Pat enjoyed a terrific rapport with the disappointingly small audience (by my reckoning, the Queen’s Hall was less than half full), dealing effortlessly with his failure to get to grips with the running order of the playlist and a trouser malfunction which required a disconcerting amount of fumbling with his flies. His voice remains as strong as ever and the effort and passion he put into his performance was evidenced by the litres of sweat from his head that showered the stage. Fluid was replenished with sips of what suspiciously looked like a mug of tea! A word too for the supporting cast, particularly the wind and percussion sections, who helped give real depth to the performance and brought to life the unique fusion of jazz, funk, rock and pop that has defined Hue and Cry throughout their career.
Still going strong after 29 years, still belting out timeless classics and still writing intelligent songs with thought provoking lyrics and punchy tunes. I look forward to the winner of this year’s X Factor doing the same in 2041.
Submitted by Phil Pinder
