Gig review: Hue & Cry

IT’S been 25 years since the Kane brothers’ second album Remote gave them their most recognisable hits (25 and change, in fact; it was actually released in 1988), and just as long since their ingenuity with brisk jazz-pop melodies lit a fire of commercial success under their career.

Hue and Cry. Picture: Contributed

Hue & Cry

Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

***

The duo have continued to work together and release new music ever since, although their ever more esoteric diversions have gone hand in hand with singer and lyricist Pat’s rising prominence as an academic essayist and commentator.

This in-order belated anniversary run-through of Remote with a few extras added drew a healthy crowd, whose admiration for the group’s popular heyday clearly still burns. It helped that Remote was so top heavy with the band’s most fondly-remembered tracks, with the brisk and urgent Ordinary Angel and well-remembered ballads Looking For Linda and Violently all included.

This group were always something of a connoisseur’s choice, but in the live setting and backed by a skilled and eager band whose abilities tended towards the jazz rather than the pop end of the equation (Greg Kane played piano amongst them, leaving Pat’s melted chocolate baritone to hold court), they sounded lively and engaging.

Where We Wish to Remain was infused with smooth saxophone, My Salt Heart and Strength to Strength resounded with loud, thumping rhythms and the closing Labour of Love mirrored the original with verve.

Seen on 13.11.14

• Town Hall, Airdrie, tonight; Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, 29 November