10th November saw us on a rare night out at the Grand Theatre for the Sensational 60s Show. This is about the third 60s show I’ve been to over the last twenty years and I have to say I still find them the best music shows out. No heavy orchestrated electronic background music, nothing more than drums and guitars, although lately they have clearly boosted the sounds with professional sound systems.
I guess the biggest attraction to me is seeing the bands that dominated the charts during the most exciting decade for the development of pop and rock. True enough, you never quite get what they promise: first show boasted three biggest bands of the sixties, so I naturally thought; Beatles, Rolling Stones and Who. Not quite what we got to see but, nevertheless some class acts. This time round we had Steve Ellis’ Love Affair, Herman’s Hermits, Chris Farlowe and Marmalade. Herman’s Hermits alone sold over 45 million records (no downloads then) and were regulars in the top twenty. Chris Farlowe I consider a one hit wonder, reaching number one with ‘Out of Time’ although he also did the original ‘Handbags and gladrags’ which he claims was written for him by Mick Jagger. Love Affair and Marmalade were also big stars and I particularly wanted to hear Marmalade play. Any one of these acts could have filled a venue back in the day.
Sadly, time has taken it’s toll and they are not quite the same bands as they used to be. I still have to remind myself that as I’m sixty the chances are the music I listen to at the age of eight plus must have been at least ten years older than me so it follows they must all be in the late sixties or their seventies, Chris Farlowe is actually seventy three and despite this has an excellent voice. So it was no surprise to see that only Steve Ellis survived from the original Love Affair but, as the main singer the young musicians produced what was probably the closest to the original sounds. They were really good and provided the music for Chris Farlowe as well. Peter Noone had long since left Herman’s Hermits, first to pursue a solo career and then work as a record producer in America, featuring as the guest murderer in one episode of . The music was still the same but, there was a big gap in the vocals as none of the original group quite matched Noones.
Annette was well disappointed by Marmalade who could only field two original players, although one had his son in the band. They were always a band that liked to play covers in their own arrangement even covering ‘Hey Joe’ and making the lower end of the charts and they did a passable cover of Norwegian Wood. Surprisingly, they did a melody of four of their biggest hits and I felt it was like they wanted to get the show over quickly. They did play Rainbow and Reflections in full but, the harmonies were no longer there and they made no effort to play and extended version or even an encore verse. It seems the time was to be taken up with a full line up lead by Chris Farlowe, which I have to admit was very well done and worked really well on the small stage.
Was it worth it? Damn right, but this late in the day it is almost as good value to see the cover bands as the old originals are dying out. I saw a young band the Small Fakers at the Robin 2 club and they did an excellent performance as the Small Faces and I have no idea if any of the originals are still performing. Brings home the passage of time even more than the creaky bones 🙂