Texas – Live – Review Connexin Live, Hull
By Roger Crow, September 2024
All bands may strive for it, but despite Fairground Attraction’s foot-tapping plea, few gigs are rarely perfect. Then along comes a show where exactly the right support act warms up the audience for the right band.
KT Tunstall’s set at Connexin Live is a sublime mix of banter, old classics and new music, all achieved by that extraordinary one-woman band who makes everything look effortless. ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’, ‘Hold On’, and ‘Suddenly I See’ are just a few of the bangers which leave me with a Cheshire Cat-style grin. By the time KT is finished, I could go home happy, but of course that’s a mere starter for the main course.
I first saw Texas in 1999 at Hull Ice Arena. It was a stripped down, standing gig, and I went alone, but was stuck behind a young couple who spent the night snogging. Not great conditions, despite the great music.
A few years ago, Texas played Connexin Live and it was a great night. Again stripped down, but as Mrs C caught covid that night from an invisible party crasher, not a great pay-off.
But whether the stars aligned on September 3, 2024, or there was just that rare occasion when everything went right, it turned out to be as perfect as Fairground Attraction once suggested things had to be.
A vast, parachute-style curtain was raised between KT and the main attraction as techs did their thing, setting up the show of the night (if not the year). And after around half an hour, the pay-off proved to be well worth it. A blood-red light filled that curtain, a spotlight, and that twangy guitar in a Ry Cooder style that had set the band on the road to stardom. Forty years ago, Wim Wenders’ film Paris Texas had given the band part of their name and their musical inspiration, but in the years since they burst into the charts in the late eighties with the masterpiece ‘I Don’t Want A Lover’, they have delivered the goods time and again. Okay, not all of their albums hit the sweet spot, but by the time White on Blonde was released in 1997, it proved to be the soundtrack for a generation. I played it on hard rotation circa 1998, and over the past year or more, lesser known tracks like ‘Insane’ have also received a daily airing.
“Top of their game”
“I want you all standing,” yells Sharleen Spiteri, who works the crowd beautifully from her first minute on stage. And thousands of us oblige as she and the group deliver all the hits and more. The banter is priceless. Potty-mouthed as usual, but hilarious with it. I’ve long been amazed that Sharleen can oscillate between adorable, foul-mouthed Glaswegian and a note-perfect singer whose vocals are like audio honey. And she’s as good live as those beautifully crafted albums, as are the rest of the band, especially drummer Cat Myers, who does a superb job of creating the musical engine that powers the group.
It’s the opening night of ‘The Very Best of Texas’ UK tour, and it’s clear they have all been testing the sound and screens to their limits. Those visuals are something else – gorgeous hi-tech screens and outstanding lighting, a perfect setting for an ideal performance.
The crowd are soon jumping for those old school classics and newer hits, like the super infectious ‘Mr Haze’. At one point, I’m dancing like me and the band are the only people in the world, and that’s the power of a great group. They’re as intimate in a room of thousands of people as they are when you listen to them on a daily basis.
Sharleen looks terrific in her sequinned jacket, glittering like the on-stage lights and video screens. To paraphrase one of Texas’s greatest tracks: She has a halo (of lights), and we really do adore her… and the rest of the tunesmiths who are clearly at the top of their game, many after decades in the business.
Despite having a spotlight in my face, it doesn’t detract from the haunting brilliance of ‘Put Your Arms Around Me’, and when Sharleen delivers a knockout performance of ‘Insane’, the result for me at least, is like Christmas just came early. In fact the whole gig is like a dozen Christmases rolled into one. I’d been looking forward to the show for months and the pay-off justified the wait.
The inevitable encore leads to a few minutes of darkness and the crowd chanting for more. It takes longer than expected because Sharleen has squeezed herself into her Elvis ‘68 Comeback Special suit, made famous by the ‘Inner Smile’ video. Hard to believe that was in 2001, but the video would have been a thousand times better if it had been filmed at this gig.
By 10.23pm, ‘Black Eyed Boy’ brings the house down once more, and I’m transported back to the late 1990s.
All music lovers have their favourite ever gig. This might be mine.
images: Rachel Crow
