Showaddywaddy’s sound harked back to a bygone time when they started in the 1970s and, fast forward 51 years, some things haven’t changed.
At the Congress Theatre, in Eastbourne, last night (Friday 27 September), the self-styled “Greatest Rock ’n’ Roll Band in the World” fulfilled fans’ expectations in familiar fashion.
Wearing their signature colourful drapes and crepes, they reeled off an array of upbeat hits, many of them covers, bringing an exuberant joy to a predominantly mature audience.
Some of their older fans brought along their children who will have grown up to the band’s retro sound and are now themselves middle-aged or beyond. There were four generations of at least one family in the four-figure crowd.
None of this is to knock an outfit who may not trouble the “hit parade” but who tour energetically and whose proficiency, professionalism and sense of fun are infectious.
They are as much a brand as a band with something of the evolving quality of Trigger’s broom in Only Fools and Horses as the formation has been refreshed. They are, though, more enduring.
The current six-strong line up includes drummer Romeo Challenger, the only original member of the band which was formed in Leicester in 1973. The original frontman Dave Bartram manages the group.
The newer members may be younger than almost everyone in the venue but they are all steeped in the retro sound and style and the rhythms of a well-paced performance.
One of the first songs of the evening, I Wonder Why, showcased their capacity for close harmony with each other as well as their audience.
The doo wop track was a 1958 hit for Dion and the Belmonts and, 20 years later, it reached no 2 in the UK charts for Showaddywaddy.
The first half of the set also included the Buddy Holly song Heartbeat, Blue Moon, written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart in 1934, and the 1961 Jarmels hit A Little Bit of Soap, penned by Bert Berns, the co-writer of Twist and Shout.
The last song before the interval was another cover version – Rock This Town by the Stray Cats. The rockabilly track may have first charted in 1981 but, played in a style closer to Bill Haley, it was a perfect fit and a fitting finale to the first half.
As the audience returned to their seats, they were accompanied by an orchestral recording of theme tunes from Second World War films, ending with the stirring strains of the Dambusters.
Then the band were back and reeled off a another set of more than a dozen songs rooted firmly in memory lane including the aptly titled Remember Then.
It was followed by You Got What It Takes – and they still have – as well as the Curtis Lee song Pretty Little Angel Eyes, When and then the Eddie Cochran classic Three Steps to Heaven from 1960.
They ended with the band’s only no 1, Under the Moon of Love, with Romeo banging out the intro on timpani drums and with everyone on their feet.
Of course there was an encore – Hey Rock and Roll. It was their first hit in 1973, penned by the band as they were catapulted to fame by New Faces – the Britain’s Got Talent of its day. The song blends the sounds of early to mid-seventies pre-punk pop with the familiar strains of what was already a bygone era.
Nostalgia may not be what it used to be but Showaddywaddy have found a formula that shows how it’s possible to look back with fondness and keep moving forward – in joyous four-step time. They’ve got what it takes.
