The current love for anything 80s continues to fuel the nostalgia boom as people clamber for those rose tinted days when Dallas was King and the sun used to shine all summer long…
Disco dandies and divas made the weekly trip to Mecca to try out their latest moves to the likes of Michael Jackson, Odyssey and the Detroit Spinners. In the early part of that decade George Benson was the darling of the dancefloor having made the transformation from jazz genius to funk meister with a string of hits which are still given heavy rotation on radio stations today.
As he took to the stage at Symphony Hall in Birmingham the crowd – now some 30 years older – were eager to prove that they could still paaaartayyy..
Opening with his first big crossover hit Breezin, Benson proved that at 69 he could still play his trademark guitar with mesmerising slickness. Love X Love got the feet tapping and Moody’s Mood brought visions of forthcoming summer holidays before Benson turned the clock back to 1977 and his cover of Nat King Cole’s classic Nature Boy.
Glenn Medeiros’ 1987 chart topper Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You was a surprise cover choice before Benson got back to his own haul of hits with the superb In Your Eyes. Then the roof came off…
The opening bars of 1981’s Turn Your Love Around and the crowd were on their feet and back at Tiffs and Romeo and Juliets dancing round handbags under flashing lights and mirror balls. Amazing to see such a normally staid and respectable venue transformed into disco heaven complete with some dodgy Dad-dancin’…
Never Give Up On A Good Thing and all three tiers of Symphony Hall were jumpin’ in a scene reminiscent of that other 80s favourite The Muppets. Knowing everyone is getting on a bit Benson slowed things down with a new instrumental version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller track The Lady in My Life followed by Benson’s own beautiful This Masquerade.
Breather over and the dazzling disco night hit even higher heights with the excellent Love Ballad and Benson’s biggest worldwide 1980 smash Give Me The Night. Cue even more bad Dad dancin’.
That turned out to be the high point of the night as after a brief respite Benson returned to perform a disappointing encore which ended with a far too overlong version of On Broadway complete with impressive but far too overlong drum solo. I know musicians like to show off their long practiced skills but less is often more…
Off they went again and that was that… No obvious second encore of Greatest Love of All which would have brought the house down…and ended a perfect night of nostalgia…
Meanwhile, the big hair was allowed to fall and the shoulder pads were put away as the time machine docked back into 2012 and the crowd went out into a rainy Birmingham night having delighted in a momentary glimpse of how it used to be…
George Benson is a stunning guitarist who can still belt out memorable songs which make people happy. Fast approaching his seventh decade his music still means so much to so many and long may that continue…
Support was by young jazz conceptualist Christian Scott who along with the three other extremely talented members of his quartet played tracks from his album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow which were warmly received by the Birmingham crowd.
Star rating ****
Ian St Peters 