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Review from 5D Music writer, Maria Robertson.
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Thursday 27th January, 2022.
Billed as “The Final Full UK Tour 2022 in memory of Dave” with special guests of Ruts DC this was always going to be a Most Excellent Evening. I must admit I had not seen either band before, and obviously it has been a wee while since we were allowed any live music events with the joy of the Christmas Lockdown, so anticipation levels were high!
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Ruts DC did a decent length of set including the expected Babylon’s Burning and In a Rut. Much bouncing occurred across the floor, and I realised how different Doc Martens are to my usual work from home slippers of late! The joyous faces and fingers stabbing the air added to the jubilant feeling in the room. After all many of the tickets had been bought 2 years ago – that’s quite a build up! My own favourite song was Something That I Said, partly for that glorious singalong feeling. The 3 members of the band have aged since many of these songs, as we all have, but they still gave the performance a lot of energy..and ageless talent. Leigh Heggarty engaged with the fans in-between songs with some light banter and there was a sad lull when they left the stage, although this was soon replaced by anticipation for the next act!
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By the time The Stranglers came on the hall had filled up nicely, seats upstairs as well as the standing area downstairs. Much of the audience was “of a certain age” and male but there were a few variations on this! Jean-Jacques Burnel, on bass, is the last original band member. The tour is in memory of Dave Greenfield who passed away in 2020 and his place at the keyboard was filled by the very able Toby Hounsha. This was not, I’m assured, one of their best performances ever but at the same time there was lots of applause, jubilation and bouncing throughout! The spirit of the original band lives on!
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Again they played a decent length of set with most of the key songs included: Always The Sun, Peaches and Golden Brown. The feeling of abject sorrow when they left the stage was luckily shortlived as they came back for 2 encores. First we had a couple of acoustic songs with just JJ and Baz Warne with the rather soulful And If You Should See Dave with some rather moving lyrics. Then the whole band came back and gave us the choice of 2 songs (I didn’t get Go Buddy Go!) before they finished the evening with the much loved No More Heroes.
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Both bands were fantastic in their own right, on the way out there were differences of opinion as to which was the better for the evening, but everyone was agreed that it was well worth donning a mask and venturing into a public space for! Here’s hoping they can finish their final tour as planned without any more restrictions or issues so that everyone who has been looking forward to the evening can get their turn at bouncing happily.
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Images courtesy of Dod Morrison Photography
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Maria Robertson is the newly anointed Chief Music & Theatre Writer for the 5D Pop Culture Website and provides reviews & coverage of local Aberdeen music & theatre gigs. She’s an experienced writer for numerous sources and is a self-confessed live gig addict ever since seeing The Counting Crows at the Barrowlands in 1994.
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