Gig review: The Nolans

Published on Monday 26 October 2009 17:57

THE NOLANS *** CLYDE AUDITORIUM, GLASGOW

MARKETING their comeback tour as the Ultimate Girls' Night Out has been a shrewd move for The Nolans – or are there just really that many people who still have a soft spot for these singing sisters?

Bernie, Linda, Maureen and Colleen have declared that they are In The Mood Again, and took to the stage – all shoulderpads, big hair and glittery microphones – in the company of a troupe of buff male dancers rigged out as fantasy stereotypes. This never happened on Top of the Pops in the early 1980s.

Much of their material from that era was jettisoned in favour of ballsy renditions of rather predictable hen party fodder – It's Raining Men, Chain Reaction, even The Three Degrees' Giving Up Giving In – and an astute selection of girly pop from the last few years (Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Duffy, Christina Aguilera), all accompanied by regular costume changes, camp, athletic dance routines and a fair smattering of sequins.

The voices were powerful, the sisters were game hoofers, the show was consistently entertaining and the transformation into Women-Of-A-Certain-Age Aloud was generally believable, but Bernie's choice of P!nk's Rockstar for her solo showcase stretched credibility too far.

Of their sparsely referenced original material, Attention To Me was cleverly reconceived as a countrified line-dancing number, while Who's Gonna Rock You Now and the encore of I'm In The Mood For Dancing were pleasant anachronisms which remained resistant to any 21st-century makeover.