Peter Viney's Blog

The Concert Hall
Lighthouse Poole
Wednesday 29th May

SET LIST

To Love Somebody
Tell Me When My Light Turns Green
Grazing In The Grass
Coming Home
All in All
I’m Going To Get Free
Plan B – I’ll Show You
Geno
Jackie Wilson Said
Until I Believe In My Soul
Free
Come On Eileen

encore
This Is What She’s Like (extended)

BAND
Kevin Rowlands- vocal
Sean Read – vocals, saxophone
Mike Timothy – keyboards, vocal
– trombone
– violin
– drums

I’m comparing the poster with the album The Feminine Divine from last year:

Someone got erased from history. Still the size of this band always varied. Looking at set lists, Autumn 2023 focussed on The Feminine Divine, but then on 24 May 2024 they played all hits and covers instead. Artists have this conundrum. You promote the latest album. Time passes. You can’t continue promoting the new album, so you have to decide what to incorporate in future tours. In their case, not enough.

It was an odd set up for the evening. A DJ? There were two turntables on stage. They were muffled dull thumping and distorted. The DJ sounded truly abysmal. No one was interested.

7.45 and 8 o’clock. Half an hour after advertised start. No one racing to go and hear the DJ.

We all stayed in the lobby and chatted. It’s important to either give support bands a chance OR just start on time and have no support. The DJ was a total waste of space. The last time I saw a DJ at a concert was Macy Gray and she went on over an hour late. Kevin was on time, but it’s still a bad idea, and they’re justifying it as part of the price of admission. Why not put ‘Concert at 8 pm. Doors open 7.30’ and like everyone else while people are waiting, have the sound crew put on a curated playlist from the desk?

Then Dexy’s set was advertised at 75 minutes. The normal contract is 90 minutes. So much so that I’ve seen both Van Morrison and Dr John have a timer on stage and end the encore dead on 90 minutes. Kevin Rowland ended the set at 21.31 (and left the band playing and did a ‘Van Morrison has left the building exit.’ That is short shrift, and my first thought was he could have slipped in more of the very catchy, wonderful songs (The One That Loves You for starters) from The Feminine Divine and still got under 90 minutes.

Poole Lighthouse Concert Hall is a major challenge for rock bands (which is partly why recent ones prefer the smaller theatre next door). It’s designed as a symphony concert hall. That means solo un-amplified violin can be heard in every seat in the hall. The majority of rock bands get it wrong, many worse than tonight (Waterboys, Bellowhead were much louder and much more confused), but tonight wasn’t a great sound balance either. When I saw The Unthanks get perfection in sound last year, every voice and instrument articulated clearly, I congratulated the sound crew on the way out and we chatted. They said the hall was incredibly ‘lively’ and they had achieved perfect sound by spending several hours sound checking, most of which was walking round to various positions and saying ‘Turn it down. And turn down more. And more.’ If you can hear a triangle ‘ting!’ in the symphony orchestra, and you can do that here, you don’t need to amplify drums so much. The resulting sound bounces around in a live hall which makes instruments and voices mash together and confuses the sound stage. I’m influenced by seeing The Average White Band with impeccable clarity of sound a week earlier. Sound here? Mediocre.

Dexys always had an intrinsically crowded sound … I was listening to Geno driving home, and the original has the same forward loud drum sound, murky bass and piercing horns, just as tonight. BUT I would have reduced the drum volume a lot. The keyboards are great when doing keyboard / piano sounds, but I really loathe that dull bass keyboard substitute sound he employs. For God’s Sake, employ a proper bass guitarist as well, I wanted to shout. I also wanted to say, find the guy who got Leonard Cohen’s totally clear and coherent mic sound and show Dexys’ crew how to get it. I want to hear every word Kevin Rowland says in the songs, and I was straining in the dialogues with Sean and missing a lot of it. That was even when they took out the drums and keyboard bass, and just had piano sound on keys and a little violin and trombone.

It starts with the band, then Kevin Rowland enters through the auditorium with hand held mic for the Bee Gees classic To Love Somebody. He did a cover on Let The Record Show – Dexys do Irish, Country & Soul. He looks great. He has charisma. Nice entrance, but we got the side spot right in the eye. The lighting plot utilises a lot of moving lights, including around the auditorium.

Tell Me When My Light Turns Green follows, another solid song, and said to be the first Dexy’s Midnight Runner’s composition. Grazing In The Grass leaps forward to 2016 and is another from Let The Record Show, a cover of Hugh Masakela / The Friends of Distinction.

Coming Home was the welcome first one from 2023. That is one of their best albums ever. I wish I’d seen the 2023 tour. I wanted much more. One of the best songs of the night.

All in All is back to the early days and Too-Rye-Ay. The shifts to falsetto are fascinating as are the mass backing vocals (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh Ooh). The drums are definitely way too loud when they’re in.

I’m Going To Set You Free is The Feminine Divine again. So a stand out for me. I’d have been delighted with the 2023 whole album approach.

Plan B / I’ll Show You is Too-Rye-Ay revisited.

Then we get Geno. I saw Geno Washington back in the day several times. This is everyone leaping to ther feet. Ecstatic response, as it deserves.

Jackie Wilson Said. Everyone loved it. Except me. I’ve seen Van Morrison do it with way better backing. Kevin Rowland sings it brilliantly, but in halls like this Van does not amplify the drums. Everyone has to scale down to the level. Van? Nobody does it better.

Everyone was up for two songs, then we sat. As the security staff moved a very few people from stage front, Kevin said ‘We don’t mind people dancing.’ OK, but that’s easy to say and crowd-pleasing, but in fact the hall has an issue. The normal routine in halls is ‘OK, last number and encore, everyone do what they want.’ Until then, they are mindful that there may be price variation in the seats. I remember seeing Fleetwood Mac (from the cheap side seats). Centre front was ten times the price, but the instant they started, Lindsay Buckingham invited everyone up front and they rushed from the back of the hall and stood, blocking the view. The hapless security staff are paid to stop that. (I’ve done it in the late 60s). Also when we all stood, two disabled people near me had no choice but to sit and stare at bums. Do it for certain numbers, then sit people back again. Don’t make the ushers jobs more difficult.

Until I Believe To My Soul was one of the best numbers of the evening. Light and shade. Extended for a live version. Fabulous.

Free was equally extended.

Come On Eileen? The audience went crazy. They loved it. I thought it sloppy and confused and they lost the melody.

Encore? The very long This Is What She’s Like was the high spot of the evening. A lot of dialogue with Sean, then a truly rocking end.

A hits show. Fine. I have the Live CD. They could have done better. 75 minutes plus an inept DJ, and mediocre band sound is … sorry … something of a poor deal compared to other “heritage artists.”.

It’s hard to believe they’re playing Scarborough tomorrow. The crew have to pack up, get there and set up. It’s a minimum seven hour drive. It looks like a sleeper bus. Then Glasgow, then back down to Cheltenham. It’s a mad schedule. Rock tours were always like that, with zero regard to geography.

The merchadise stall had the new Live album from the 2023 The Feminine Divine tour. The 2 CD version was £20 (£14.99 on amazon), but it’s 8 or 9 days ahead of release. I bought one. However, a artist can do it cheaper (£15? It’s 2 CDs) when you’re not giving amazon 30% to 70% of the price. I would. You make more. People check amazon on their phones then wait. The higher-priced signed copy seems standard now with every band. They added signed setlists. A sheet of A4 paper elevated to £10? That is taking the piss. Not as much as John Lydon’s £85 selfies, but still taking the piss.