Last Wednesday evening I hauled up west and along a damp Uxbridge road to take a butchers at the much-lauded Lucky Soul at Bush Hall. On arrival, with a little time to spare I took my place at the bar for a G & T. The little saloon was plump with allsorts. Students, drunken Swedes, lonely looking older men, young woman in Mary Quant bobs and lots of couples all babbling with anticipation.
When my queuing was done I went through into the hall where plaster leaves and cherubs adorned the walls and high ceilings - and while I was admiring the chandeliers Lucky Soul walked on to the stage.
I turned to see some thing akin to a Tarantino flick. The five fellas were all trim and pukka in suits and boots, the gorgeous front lady Ali Howard appeared in a pastel, floral mini dress with a matching flower in her hair. They were spangled from the lights of a glitter ball. The music? Classic 60’s pop all iridescent and winsome. Lucky Soul was a top class act and the venue could not have been more perfect for them.
Ali Howard trilled out lovelorn lyrics with a voice like strawberries and cream. She casually shimmied pointy toed about the stage while piping out Spectorish jingles such as “Add Your Light to Mine” and “Ain’t Never Been Cool”. In between songs she glugged from a pint glass of Lager and never once spilled a drop or smudged her lipstick. Andrew Laidlaw, who you could say is the kingpin of this outfit has plucked some lovely melodies out of the ether and the whole band played through the set like a charm.
If there is one criticism I think that it is this; I was waiting for them to explode on the stage, I was waiting for a moments of halcyon bliss where you as the audience could be invited to proper lose it in the music. They did heat up the set and seemed to enjoy it all more as the evening passed along, especially during their u-turn back to the stage for an encore. But they didn’t quite seem to know how good they really were, and I think that perhaps if they had, they would have had the entire hall dancing back out onto that soggy Uxbridge road.
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