Hi,
“When ‘The Soul Convicts’ hit town there’s no way you can do anything else but sit up and listen!
And it’s more than likely you won’t be sitting long because you’ll be on your feet dancing.
So it was at Turf Moor when the band’s opening number paid tribute to Gail with their own arrangement of the Otis Redding version of My Girl … with singer Danny Finn emotionally belting out the words “My Gail”.
The 10-piece band don’t just dwell on the sounds of the sixties although that’s where some of their best music comes from.
They mix the Stax-Atlantic and Motown stuff with some 70s and 80s funk and breath some fresh air into the act with Amy Winehouse, Beyonce, and Bruno Mars numbers.
But on Friday they were playing to a mainly old soul crowd and they gave the dinner a real wow factor.
Just a taste of what was on offer was Sam and Dave’s Hold On, I’m Coming; Temptations’ Get Ready; Frankie Valli’s Beggin’; James Brown’s I Feel Good; Stevie Wonder’s Superstition; Rose Royce’s Carwash; Beyonce’s Crazy In Love, plus a collection of other dance classics.
The show closed with Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music which earned a rapturous ovation and encore.
Whatever decade they turned to, the band, with their rasping horn section, played in fabulous harmony.
So each and every member needs to take a bow. That’s the horn blowers Paddy Higginson, Liz Nightingale, Lindsey Middleton, Justin Chappell and Matt Clare; bass and lead guitarists Gregory Harper and Curtis Gould; drummer Elliot Chapman; keyboard player Neil Cannings and stunning vocalist Danny Finn.”
Alan Simpson (Deputy Editor – Lancashire Telegraph).