Gig review: Paul Carrack - Royal Concert Hall

By Malcolm Jack
Published on 14/02/2013 02:17

THERE’S no doubting that when it comes to a certain type of adult-orientated pop, Paul Carrack presents great value for money.

Paul Carrack

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

* * * *

Besides his prolific solo career, spanning 16 albums including last year’s Good Feeling, the so-called Man With The Golden Voice – if that doesn’t make him sound too much like a rubbish Bond villain – has also enjoyed fruitful spells with bands including Ace, Squeeze and Mike + The Mechanics since the 1970s, not to mention written for many more.

We got a whistle-stop tour of the sharp suit and trilby hat-sporting Yorkshireman’s varied repertoire over 90 minutes which couldn’t have been much more studded with classics if you’d spent the same length of time flicking between drive-time radio stations. Opener Good Feelin’ About It was the definition of smooth, sunshiny rock ’n’ roll; Squeeze’s Tempted became the first of several numbers to give off a tingle of instant recognisability.

An extended jam at the end of the soulful Better Than Nothing let Carrack exercise some of the fleet-fingered keys work – on organ and piano – that has made him so in-demand as a session player over the years.

Mike + The Mechanics songs studded the set’s latter half – with Another Cup of Coffee and The Living Years arriving either side of a cover of Bruce Springsteen ballad If I Should Fall Behind, which proved Carrack a sensitive interpreter of even the most hallowed of songwriters.

It took Ace number 1 to finally get everyone on their feet and singing along in earnest. By the encore, and a triumphant Over My Shoulder, the hits-to-pounds ratio looked less good value than it did a bargain.