Monday, October 27, 2008

Review: Electric Proms - Saturday Night Fever 25.10.08

I listened to this on Saturday night when it was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 and then watched it all over again on TV, via the 'red button' on digital.

The concert at the Roundhouse in London was a celebration of 30 years of the classic movie soundtrack by the Bee Gees, and featured one Bee Gee - Robin Gibb to be precise - and the BBC Concert Orchestra, with a few guest singers thrown in.

Actually, the line up was like a EuropeCrazy fan-party, with three of this blog's musical favourites of the last 12 months: Sam Sparro, Gabriella Cilmi and Bryn Christopher.

The various songs were interspersed with the soundtrack's many memorable instrumentals performed excellently by the BBC Concert Orchestra, in fine form.

Track listing:

"Stayin' Alive" - Sam Sparro: Sam in falsetto mode, doing great justice to this disco classic.
"How Deep Is Your Love" - Sharleen Spiteri: possibly the low point of the night, as I didn't feel this was really the right song choice for her singing style.
"More Than A Woman" - Robin Gibb: Bee-Gee-tastic.
"You Should Be Dancing" - Gabriella Cilmi: Proof that she isn't just good on record - what a great live performer she is too!
"Night Fever" - Sam Sparro: more great falsetto - only he could get away with it. What's that haircut about though, Mr Sparro?
"If I Can't Have You" - Sharleen Spiteri: she was much better on this - very good actually.
"Jive Talkin'" - Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately: the boys from Boyzone did a very good job here.
"Boogie Shoes" - Gabriella Cilmi: great gutsy version of the KC song.
"Disco Inferno" - Bryn Christopher: absolute highlight of the night as this outrageously talented and underrated performer blew everyone off the stage. He looked amazing too :)) I'm in love! I was watching this show with my mum and she's just a bit in love with him too...!

Encore
"Words" - Ronan Keating & Stephen Gately: pretty faithful version of the song, although I was never too keen on the Boyzone version if I'm honest.
"Heartbreaker" - Gabriella Cilmi: a great new singing talent with vocal maturity beyond her years.
"Emotions" - Bryn Christopher: just brilliant. I totally love this guy, he is a fantastic singer. Why isn't he a massive, massive star?
"To Love Somebody" - Robin Gibb: a fitting and dignified conclusion to an amazing concert.

If you haven't seen the show then some of the clips are over at YouTube. Not that I ever need any excuse for a bit of Bryn Christopher, so here's some "Disco Inferno"...

2 comments:

Poster Girl said...

Wow...that really was a great performance from Bryn! I'm really really impressed...and interested; will he/does he ever venture towards that territory in his own music?

Laura (EuropeCrazy) said...

His music is more old-style soul rather than the currently popular r'n'b Ne-Yo/Chris Brown style and I think that's why he hasn't really been successful yet - he's released a couple of singles ("The Quest" and "Smilin'") but neither have made the top 30. I don't usually go for cover versions but I'd love him to release a cover version of "Disco Inferno" and maybe that will finally make him famous - he's yet another great new (mainly) undiscovered talent :)