Review: Let's Rock Leeds at Temple Newsam, Leeds

Sarah Price:

Openers Tony Hadley and 80s synth band Blancmange certainly set the tone for an eclectic mix of retro music at Let’s Rock Leeds on Saturday.

When the running order was announced with Tony Hadley and his fabulous TH band due to kick proceedings off; there was mixed murmurings about this on socials. And certainly, with some unwelcome logistical challenges for the organisers which meant that many of the crowd could only listen from queues outside the gates, the noise of discontent about the choice of opening act rumbled on.

Despite the scheduling Hadley was no warm-up act. For those that were lucky enough to see him were treated to a quality headline act performance – time of day was irrelevant. As you would expect from a stalwart of the retro festival circuit, he gave the crowd all the hits including Lifeline, True and of course the obligatory crowd pleaser Gold.

With more of the crowd in, the sound shifted to the more electronic vibe of Blancmange but the tempo remained very much upbeat with solid renditions of Living on the Ceiling and Don’t Tell Me.

The afternoon line-up saw most musical tastes catered for with a flurry of 80s and 90s chart toppers take to the stage.

Eurodance group Livin’Joy belting out club classic Dreamer giving the crowd no chance to stop moving even if they wanted to. Before the pop soul baton was handed to Roland Gift who reminded the crowd of the huge chart success he enjoyed in the mid to late 80s as part of the Fine Young Cannibals with hits Suspicious Minds, Good Things, Johnny Come Home and She Drives Me Crazy.

Let’s Rock regulars Hue & Cry returned. Perhaps still looking for Leeds lass Linda? And equally entertained with Labour of Love.

Next up Heatwave who turned up the disco beat a notch or two with 70s funk classic Boogie Nights, before slowing it right down with nostalgic slow dance number Always and Forever.

Doctor & the Medics and Neal X (of the infamous Sigue Sigue Sputnik) helped to pick up the pace once more with lots of excitable audience participation (both in voice and fancy dress) with Spirit in the Sky and Love Missile F1-11.

And late afternoon as the sun finally started to shine there was much love for Liverpool’s alternative group The Farm who gave a sterling performance and treated a very appreciative crowd to Stepping Stone, Groovy Train and closed with indie anthem All Together Now.

Duncan Seaman:

Bathed in late afternoon sunshine at Temple Newsam, Liverpool disco, funk and soul group The Real Thing brought a warm glow to proceedings with a set that contained several enduring tunes. Not least of which was You To Me Are Everything, a UK number one in 1976 that enjoyed a second lease of life in remixed form a decade later, along with Can’t Get By Without You and Can You Feel The Force? Frontmen Chris Amoo and Dave Smith, sporting caps and natty slacks, radiated bonhomie, while the band’s slick performance kept the crowd grooving.

Nathan Moore of Brother Beyond might have been a link man between the main stage acts, but he looked like he’d won the lottery as he bounded around in a Hawaiian shirt belting out The Harder I Try and Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now with an enormous grin on his face.

Midge Ure, by contrast, was rather more soberly dressed in a black polo neck top befitting the crepuscular mood of songs like Vienna and his cover of No Regrets, a Tom Rush tune made famous in the Seventies by Scott Walker’s magnificent baritone voice.

A fine set drew heavily on his days in Ultravox, with tracks such as We Stand Alone, Love’s Great Adventure and Hymn soaring into the evening sky, but he also showed the breadth of his songwriting with an instrumental rendition of Yellow Pearl, which he co-wrote with Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott and which for several years was adopted as the theme tune to Top of the Pops, his guitar-heavy 1985 chart-topper If I Was, and Fade To Grey, Visage’s synth pop classic from 1980.

And there was time for him to indulge his inner guitar hero once more in a rousing Dancing With Tears in My Eyes.

The day’s real triumph, though, was OMD, led by Andy McCluskey in effervescent form. If the livewire opening salvo of Electricity and Messages wasn’t enough to immediately win the over audience, McCluskey’s ready wit had 10,000 people eating out the palm of his hand. “Anybody seen us before?” he enquired, to be greeted by a loud cheer. “You masochistic b*****ds,” he replied drily.

McCluskey’s long-time musical partner Paul Humphreys took centre stage for sweetly-sung versions of (Forever) Live and Die and Souvenir before McCluskey’s cavorting and impassioned delivery on Joan of Arc and Maid Of Orleans had the crowd repeatedly chanting ‘OMD, OMD’, to which he quipped: “When you get to our age, it’s good to be reminded of the name of your band. Old Man Dancing...really f***ing badly.”

After Talking Loud and Clear was equally rapturously received, the singer and bassist declared: “This is so much fun. We’ve got 48 songs left to play. Soft Cell are on at breakfast.”

The band indeed might have continued all night, but after Enola Gay, it was time for OMD to bow out exultantly.

For the day’s headliners, Soft Cell, this was a return to the city that birthed their band. Marc Almond was in strong voice while keyboard wizard Dave Ball had thankfully overcome a plethora of recent health problems to make it to the stage.

They began well, with Torch, a number two UK hit in 1982, instantly familiar, but their insistence for the next half an hour in wrongfooting the audience with deeper cuts from their catalogue and tracks from their 2022 album *Happiness Not Included, had non-hardcore adherents heading for the exit.

A 20-minute run of songs from the brilliantly melodramatic Soul Inside onwards, however, was undeniably thrilling. “Now I see 10,000 people just like me,” Almond sang, tweaking the lyric of Bedsitter, while the Northern soul stomper What remains an underrated gem in their canon. A medley of Tainted Love and Where Did Our Love Go could happily have gone on until the early hours, but there was room too for Say Hello Wave Goodbye and Purple Zone, the catchiest song from *Happiness Not Included.

All in all, a really enjoyable day out.