Angel Air 2009 / 2016
Live Robin 2-2003
Pop royalty still reigns with their sleek flag flying colorfully.
Today, Peter Cox and Richard Drummie are on the roll again, outlining their longevity with an album split over time into three EPs, but back in 2003, when they walked onto a Bilston stage, the duo hadn’t released new music for more than a decade. Not that it mattered much to the fans, or to the musicians who – as documented here on CD and DVD – delegated the first refrain of the evening to the audience as if testing their dedication and, from “Don’t Look Down” on, never looked back, performance-wise. It would be difficult to do anyway, what with the singer’s infectious dance on “We Close Our Eyes” or the warm sincerity of “Glow” whose soulful flow may seem rather too mellifluous in a live environment.
GO WEST –
Kings Of Wishful Thinking
Still, while leading beyond the obvious hits such as “The King Of Wishful Thinking” which many remember from the “Pretty Woman” movie, this concert reveals a degree of homogeneity to the GO WEST oeuvre, even though the funky “SOS” and “Innocence” rock the house, and “I Want To Hear It” is quite an athletic exercise, Cox’s grip on a microphone stand as firm as it is on the listeners in front of him. The band wring every sinew from their instruments and Drummie switches between keyboard and guitar to add texture to it all, yet, if not for a jazz piano “Missing Persons” could have test a non-initiated patience, unlike “The Sun And The Moon” that’s evoking the spirit of Otis Redding, and “What You Won’t Do For Love” that’s part of a “guilty pleasure” ministry. And there’s nothing wrong with it, as the cover of “Tracks Of My Tears” suggests: GO WEST still are the life of the party.
***1/2
