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by Steven By the time we got to the Hall, it was about 7.40pm. Doors were at 7pm. Robert Post came on looking haaaaaawt with his band just before 8pm and they played til about 8.30. There was a break and Texas came on at 9pm. You could see the band walking on stage but couldn't see which one was Shar til the lights came up. She wore the same clothes as the pics from the Glasgow gigs show her. They opened up with a flawless rendition of I Don't Want a Lover before introducing themselves to the audience. The whole place was rocking to the songs, mainly the oldies but the reception for new Red Book tracks was very positive. After some cheeky Sharleen banter with the crowd they tore into Halo and brought the house down. Shar introduced Michael, the new keyboard player and told us how he was getting too cocky and was starting to speak to the crowd more than Shar, to which she said it was her band and she ran the show, to a great response from the crowd. She told us she was hot and sweaty and got a lot of wolf-whistles from the audience, she acknowledged that there were probably more women wolf-whistling than guys ;) She also mentioned that they had a late night last night because the drummer's girlfriend Tina went into labour on the Friday. She took off her cap and her jacket and sang Get Down Tonight and a very, very rousing rendition of Black Eyed Boy, followed by Can't Resist. She asked what we thought of her new material and we all voiced our approval. She said we had to at least pretend we were interested in her new stuff in nothing else. She said they'd put a special set together for us and then the band What About Us (Dallas) and In Our Lifetime, then they took it slower with When We Are Together. Getaway followed and my god, did she sound amazing on that track, really belting out those notes at the end. Summer Son was good, but In Demand and Inner Smile were amazing. She let the crowd join in with In Demand on the "yeah yeah yeah yeah" refrain, and also in Inner Smile. The note she holds for Inner Smile sounded even better live than on the record. By this time, Sharleen Spiteri really did have Edinburgh eating out of her hands. She said it had been 15 years since Texas had played the Usher Hall (though not Edinburgh). They'd been away too long, but they had come back. The crowd were telling the band that we wanted them to go on all night. Shar mentioned that the band had Sunday as a day off so they would get a long lie in the morning. She mentioned that we should compete with Glasgow and to shout if we wanted them to come back on. The band left the stage and everyone roared for them to come back on. They came back on. They brought Paul Buchanan onto the stage for the last two songs. Shar mentioned that she'd go the chance to duet with him on Red Book. We couldn't really hear him too well to begin with, there may have been a problem with his mic. Sleep was amazing and so was their cover of Like a Rolling Stone. They left again and the final number was Say What You Want which was an amazing performance of an amazing pop song. The whole house was breaking it down and singing along with Shar giving up the mic to the crowd for the choruses and people dancing in the balconies up above our heads. It was amazing, a great gig. I will never forget it. It took me a few years to get the chance to see my favourite band play live in concert and it more than lived up to my expectations. Amazing. Out of this world. |