It was a case of a return to the Good Old Days at Leeds City Varieties as Glam Rock sensations Bobbie Dazzle whisked us back to the 1970s with a barnstorming performance that shook the foundations of the historic 160-year-old musical hall. The glorious retro outfit may ham up the ode to yesterday, but their music is no joke as the uber-tight four-piece band get down to business with a punchy set of four-to-the floor foot stompers.
Bobbie Dazzle is the brainchild of singer/ songwriter – and flautist – Siân Greenaway, who resplendent in a figure-hugging black one-piece, delivers a note-perfect powerhouse performance. The songs are great – often a hint in the intro of something you may have heard before – but just enough for it to be a tease rather than theft. Revolution with it’s Status Quo-esque start a case in point.
Merry Go Round and Magic of Music have me imagining Beth Hart singing with The Sweet in their pomp. Oh, and they have the coolest keytar player throwing some serious shapes to boot! It’s a total blockbuster of fun and raises hope for a The Darkness-style music revolution to bring the brilliant genre kicking and screaming back into the charts.
It takes a brave man to put on such a strong support act but then it’s even braver perhaps to use Tom Petty as your intro tape. But Luke Morley is a man who has never been shy of a challenge and hitting the road with a new solo band due to the enforced absence of Brit rock stalwarts Thunder after singer Danny Bowes suffered a stroke, he certainly doesn’t seem to be in the mood to back down.
Opening with I Wanna See the Light, Morley and his fellow four musicians quickly find their groove. Introducing the title track of his (third) solo album Walking on Water, Morley asks the audience who have put their hands in their pockets to buy the LP. Most hands are raised before he asks who hasn’t bought it and some foolhardy folk respond. “Why the f**k would you put your hand up and admit it?” laughs the bemused frontman. In truth it’s a fair question because the songs lifted from it tonight are a smorgasbord of traditional classy offerings from one of the most prolific British songwriters of the last 50 years.
And there is something lovely about hearing songs such as Breathe and the country-tinged Natural High sung with such emotion by the man who bore their creation.
Errol Flynn from 2023’s Songs From The Blueroom is introduced as “a song I thought I wrote about my father but I’m starting to realise it’s actually about me”, and it prompts a moving audience singalong, whilst Killed By Cobain tells the story of how Nirvana destroyed Thunder’s attempts to make it big in America just as they were set to become a stadium filling rock band to rival the likes of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard.
Morley limits actual Thunder tracks to just River of Pain and Like A Satellite and they sit comfortably in the 14 song set which is delivered beautifully by a hugely talented band. Thunder bassist Chris Childs and the band’s tour keyboard player Sam Tanner are accompanied by Cats In Space axeman Dean Howard – with whom Morley enjoys a memorable Crossroads-style guitar duel – and newbie drummer, the hugely talented Rhys Morgan.
The tour concludes at London’s Bloomesbury Theatre on Friday night.