Floral Pavilion, New Brighton – 11/10/19
Entering the Floral Pavilion, there was a plethora of tartan on display for Les Mckeown and his Bay City Rollers. I didn’t really know what to expect, I had listened to some songs over the years and I have recently just got the new Bay City Rollers Gold CD, which is an excellent definitive collection and a great listen. I was all set, minus wearing tartan, for a great night.
The lights went down, the bagpipes kicked in and a cheer erupted from the tartan clad crowd, smaller than I thought it’d be, but, what they lacked in size, they more than made up for in energy and vigour. The moment Les McKeown entered the stage and sang the first song, ‘Summer Love Sensation’ the crowd were enthusiastically clapping and singing along.
Les invited the crowd to stand up very early on, assuring the crowd that, despite it possibly being a theatre rule that you can’t stand up and dance and sing, he absolutely didn’t mind and for the audience to go right ahead and stand up. Almost immediately, a crowd gathered at the foot of the stage and the show continued. The crowd steadily grew in size throughout the night!
Keep on Dancing’ and ‘I only want to be with you’ were up next, what great renditions and Les sang them perfectly. He is the ‘voice’ and what a great voice too! He was hitting all the same notes with as much vigour as he was in the 70’s. The sound was excellent too, it really does make the world of difference to a gig if the mix is slightly off, but, tonight it was perfect. A perfect mix and you could hear what every individual was doing musically, which I like!
The hits kept coming and in between songs, Les chatted to the audience, he gave them the chance to ask any questions they might have and also joked with the band too. I have to mention, on a slight side note, I fell in love the night I went to see the Bay City Rollers, not with a person, but with Phil Hendriks’ silver sparkly Les Paul. What a beauty, and a sound to die for!
Anyway, back to the music, midway through the first set Les did a medley of songs that were a tribute to some of the greats we have lost over the years. Opening with Bohemian Rhapsody which the whole crowd sang on their own, they played tributes to Mark Bolan, Mud and a particularly good version of David Bowie’s Rebel Rebel – another great rendition and a great showcase of Les McKeown’s fabulous voice. He has still got, believe me!
Bringing the first half to a close with Saturday Night, it seemed the whole audience headed for the bar. The bar queue seemed to take forever, which is unlike the Floral, normally it’s very quick service, but it did give audience members the chance to chat to each other, talk about their favourite BCR songs and it gave me the chance to say hello to Anthony and Mark, who had made a little bit more effort with their outfits. Good effort chaps!
The second half kicked off with ‘Remember’ and straight away the crowd had re assembled at the front and didn’t move for the rest of the gig! Les throughout act two chatted some more to the audience, it was really personal and he was genuinely interested in what people had to say, of course his sense of humour ran through all of these audience interactions! Always getting a laugh and having a chuckle.
The hits continued, ‘All of Me Loves All of You’, ‘My Teenage Heart’ and ‘The Bump’. So much fun. Then the song everyone was waiting for. ‘Shang – A – Lang’. The minute the opening chord rang out, there was a huge cheer and the already excitable audience went mad! It was great, almost a little insight into what it used to be like! Les and the band were having so much fun up there, you could really tell, audience and band feeding off each other. What a brilliant night. ‘Shang-A-Lang’ came to a close and the band went off stage, but the audience wanted more.
After a brief moment of uncertainty, will they come back, wont they?… They always come back! Les walked on stage, on his own, singing the first line of ‘Bye Bye Baby’ Singing through the first verse accapella and then joined by the rest of the band in the chorus. Brilliant, Les’ voice was spot on.
What a great finale to a great show. The band and Les well and truly delivered at the Floral, I thought it was an excellent night of entertainment. I went in knowing a few Bay City Rollers songs, I came out a full on fan! It was such a great night!
