Classical review: Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow

By JAY RICHARDSON
Published on 05/07/2012 00:00

HIS career revived by Jersey Boys, one of the more credible jukebox musicals, and with a film adaptation reportedly in the works, Frankie Valli made a triumphant return to Scotland on Tuesday night for the first time in more than three decades.

The sole Four Season still touring, half a century after their first hit, at 78, his trademark falsetto remains fiercely impressive, initially allowed to take flight on Stay Just A Little Bit Longer.

With a meaty backing band and four strapping, all-American boys taking on the role of the Seasons, at times the gig actually recalled a musical, not least in the glitzy sheen of the arrangements and later, the masses swarming up to the front to dance.

Opening slickly, and without fanfare to Grease, early standouts included a shuffly rendition of I’ve Got You Under My Skin, the plaintive ballad My Eyes Adored You and the flirting with mawkishness Fallen Angel by Rogue. A medley of Sixties covers was rather by-the-numbers but peaked with A Rose In Spanish Harlem and My Girl, before a wonderfully brassy rendition of Northern Soul perennial The Night.

Silence is Golden gave the Seasons the opportunity to show they’re more than chiselled faces, and if Working My Way Back To You upped the tempo, it was Oh, What A Night that joyously kept it there, with Valli as ever happy to simply be part of the ensemble. Still the classics kept coming, Let’s Hang On finally bringing the curtain down.

Rating: ****