Opening a gig during their first original-line-up tour for over two decades with a rousing piece without vocals may have seemed, at first, an odd way to get the audience “voxed-up”.
But looking around, it was clear people were not sitting firmly in their seats through lack of enthusiasm, but because they were awestruck by the subtle sound emanating from these four phenomenally talented musicians.
A few numbers in, canny Scottish frontman Midge Ure broke the sitting spell by first playing the sympathy card – telling everyone how pleased he was to see someone had showed up – and then chivvying the packed house to get up and dance by asking whether it was not the “done thing to stand up in such a historic building”.
The hall rose to their feet in a single move and, with the first beats of One Small Day, it immediately started to feel even more special.
Reap the Wild Wind was as exciting and fresh as ever and a truly inspiring resurrection of Hymn was enough to convince any doubters that, despite some grey hair, Ure, Chris Cross (bass guitar, synthesiser, vocals), Billy Currie (keyboards and synthesiser) and drummer Warren Cann were nowhere near exchanging new wave for old.
As for Vienna, well, it could still conjure up the days when Ure was The Voice, new romance was exactly that and all the prettiest boys were piling on the eye-liner.
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