Blancmange
Neil Arthur, Blancmange founder and frontman strolls onto the NAC stage, with that same cool persona, looking as dashing as ever in a suit with white trainers, not bad at all for a 63 year old! They kick off with the uplifting and instantly recognisable Game Above My Head (from 1984’s Mange Tout) swiftly followed by In Your Room (from 2018’s Wanderlust), this gives a very strong indication early doors of what to expect for the next ninety minutes as we get a set full of the classics from the back catalogue, yet still mixing the old with the new.
Despite being somewhat irritated by a member of the audience early doors, Arthur keeps his cool and gives it back, better than that which was first served to him. “How’s your wife and my kids” he quips and that seems to do the trick just nicely in shutting up the mouthypunter!
Many iconic Blancmange songs get an airing, I Can’t Explain, Living On The Ceiling, Waves, Blind Vision, I’ve Seen The World and What’s Your Problem through to their cover of Abba’s The Day Before You Came, it’s a much more stripped down version with just vocals and piano, it sounds just great. Then Feel Me has the floor of the NAC shaking to its foundations with its mesmerising beat. Wow! It still sounds just so amazing.
Mindset the title track from the album of the same name is a standout newer track from the set this eveningjudging by the response from the audience as is Clean Your House, both go down very well. Then there is Real Estate from the brand new Commercial Break album that is being released during this month and of course the brilliant What’s The Time.
They close the evening with yet another masterpiece, Don’t Tell Me.
Right here, right now we have a band that is still cool, credible and very clearly has the desire and drive to go with it to be creative and try something new unlike many, in fact most bands form that era that just live off of the hits every time they pop their heads out of their front door to tour. Arthur’s pulse is still pulsating some almost forty years now since the release of the debut album Happy Families, the blood is pumping and the juices are clearly still flowing during the past decade judging by the frequent output of new material and long may that continue.
