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Paul Buchannan – Birmingham Symphony Hall – 22nd May 2006 The songs of one of pop music’s most critically acclaimed groups were played to an audience of ecstatic fans, when Paul Buchannan performed the songs of his band, The Blue Nile at Birmingham’s Symphony hall. Support for the evening was provided by up and coming singer-songwriter Hayley Hutchinson, who performed a selection of new songs, the highlights being ‘Somedays’ and ‘Love song for the enemy’. With just vocals and guitar, the songs were stripped down, but would have sounded better with the full and richer dynamics that a full backing band could provided. Paul Buchanan was touring for the first time in ten years, a fact that was alluded to many times, with members of the audience vocally agreeing. The band have always been critics favourite, known for the perfection of their music, and the warmth and soul of Buchanan’s voice. As he had not toured for a while, the audience were older than is sometimes the case at the gig, but no less enthusiastic. The ovation that Buchanan and his band got at the beginning of the concert was testament to that. Paul Buchanan himself was in fine form vocally, and musically, and any nerves that he may have felt were quickly ignored, as he grew into the performance as the gig went on. He was even able to make light of how it was him singing on a recent Texas song, but the part being performed in the video by the comedian Peter Kay. The Blue Nile were always a band of subtlety, of whispering rather than shouting. The performance eschewed all of the normal performances of a rock gig, there were no keyboard or guitar solo, only hushed, precise performances. All of the songs were warmly received, but songs such as ‘From a Late Night Train’ and one of their best known songs ‘Tinseltown in the Rain’ receiving the best reactions. The band also made use of new technology, with samples and other musical techniques filling in the sounds on the record. This was particularly noticeable on ‘A Walk across the Rooftops’ where samples were used to fill out the sounds that the five man band could not play. Two new songs were also performed. ‘A day in a Northern town’ will hopefully make it onto his new album. Songs such as ‘Tinseltown in the Rain’ ‘Saturday Night’ and ‘Heatwave’ received a more robust treatment than they did on the record, with keyboard, drums, bass, and two guitars helping to provide a rich and laidback coda to many of the songs. The band played ‘Headlights on the Parade’ as the last song of their main set, before the band left the stage to a rousing standing ovation. The encore was of the first live performance of ‘The Downtown Lights’ in ten years. The fans knew all of the words, singing along to this little known pop gem. Paul Buchanan said at the end, that he will be back. At east he knows that after 10 years, he still has a loyal audience, as quality music tends to.
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