The Icicle Works @ the Waterfront

It’s not every day that you get to see one of your very favourite bands of all time reappear in your home city. And as far as The Icicle Works go, it’s been just over twenty five years. So to say that I was up for this is something of an understatement and knowing that it was going to be a marathon set, we arrived nice and early. However, not quite early enough! As we entered the packed upstairs of the Waterfront, the closing bars of my very favourite Icicle Works song When It All Comes Down were playing out. Arghhhhhhhh! Nooooooooo!

Front man McNabb was tonight supported by his long term bandmates Roy Corkhill (Black) on bass, Matthew Priest (Dodgy) on drums and Richard Naiff (The Waterboys) on keyboards. As expected, the banter is plentiful throughout the evening and the quality and depth of musicianship is immense. There is a real warmth emanating from the floor to the stage and back again during the evening. It’s a cauldron of love. We witness an absolutely blistering full on two and a half hour set of songs from the bands' back catalogue of five studio albums, all of which were released during a highly creative six year period between 1984 and 1990.  We are treated to Seven Horses, Rapids, Shit Creek, Up Here In The North Of England, Hollow Horse, Understanding Jane, Blind and of course their one and only hit Love Is A Wonderful Colour. The fact that this band had one solitary Top 40 hit way back in 1983 and yet still manages to draw a proper crowd of muso’s speak volumes for the depth of quality that surrounds McNabb's songwriting and the quite brilliant back catalogue. He has never fully received the real credit that his music deserves, especially at this stage of his career. He is still rock music’s best kept secret.  He could’ve quite easily have dumped these twenty four songs in the dustbin on the way in and picked up another twenty four at the top of the stairs and it still would’ve been an amazing evening, as songs such as Hope Springs Eternal, Sweet Thursday, Chop The Tree, Lovers Day and Permanent Damage don’t quite make the set list.