Hue & Cry – Piano and Vocals

I always look forward to a Hue & Cry concert just to hear Pat Kane’s fantastic voice and the songs that Pat and younger brother Greg have written together. Both of them are now in their late 50’s and it’s been a long time since they had a hit song in the charts, but that didn’t stop them selling out the Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh.

 

They have released 15 studio albums, the last one was 2017, and only the first 4 made any impact on the UK album charts. Their last chart single was a remix version of their first single, Labour of Love (No 6 in 1987) which got to No 25 in the UK singles charts in 1993.

 

That hasn’t stopped then touring extensively and they seem to be going through a bit of a renaissance and will be playing at all 8 of the UK wide Let’s Rock Festivals in 2023, among other solo tours planned as well.

 

So let’s get to the concert. They played all their best known songs and 1 or 2 others not so well known. They started off with the 1986 release “I Refuse” and then went into what is probably their best known song, “Looking for Linda” and then “Say you Love Me” from the 1994 album Showtime. They then went on to play “Long Term Lover of Pain”, where Pat forget the lyrics, so he is human afterall!

 

They also went on to do “Stars Crashing Down” from 1991, which was my personal favourite from the night, but then Pat also did an Acappella version, no microphone, of “Violently”, where Pat moved among the sold out crowd and you could have heard a pin drop. Before he went on to sing “Ordinary Angels” he made the point that this song was first released 35 years ago and made the comment about “Bands that stick with fans and fans that stick with bands”.

 

While most of the songs were Hue & Cry originals they also did a couple of cover songs. They did the Michael Marra classic, “Mother Glasgow” and the Sam Sparro song “Black and Gold”

 

Overall a great concert, but a couple of things of note from the concert. We arrived at 7.15pm to long queues at the bar, this I would say was due to everyone arriving late rather than a lack of bar staff, but with no announcement and lots of people still in the bar area, the concert started so lot’s of people still piling in when they were on to their 2nd song, which drew comments from the band.

 

With no support band, they played for 45 minutes in the first half, then a 15 minute interval and again, a packed bar area with no announcement to the start of the second half where they played for another 45 minutes. The concert was finished by 9.15pm. Is this now the norm?

 

Another great performance from Hue & Cry and I can’t wait to hear them again.

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                                                                                                       Reviewed by Radio Saltire's Colin Torley Saturday 26th November 2022.