Shakespears Sister: Live in Glasgow – review

As I am on a bit of a forced sabbatical from the Ginger Quiff, Alex “Mainy” Main is filling the void for me. A while ago, I did something I do all too often. I purchased tickets for a gig without checking the dates…schoolboy error. Anyway, thankfully Mainy was happy to take the tickets for Shakespears Sister off my hands and in return, he has shared his thoughts for the GQ.

Cheers Mainy…

Once upon a time I stood in a field and watched Shakespears Sister take the preconceived perception of them as a lightweight pop band and savagely tear it up before casting it to the wind.

That was twenty-seven years ago. A lifetime ago.

Back then when they stormed the legendary pyramid stage of the Glastonbury Festival, I felt a reality shift take place.

Blindsided

Before the first chord was struck my head was full of their chart hits with a tiny part sectioned off to consider who to go and see if their set was a bust, and then they blew me away by the power of their performance.

I was blindsided in the most enjoyable way imaginable.

Plug in, tune up, blow the crowd away. Job done.

Their appearance was to be a highlight amongst many of that year’s pilgrimage.

During their set their pop sensibilities were firmly put in the back seat as rock and roll gripped the wheel tightly and took us on a Hunteresque journey.

You know the one.

‘Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!”

Yeah, that one.

Unfinished Story

And now here we are in 2019 and the unimaginable has happened as they are back with not just new material, but live dates too. No one could have seen that coming.

Hell must have frozen over as the relationship between Siobhan Fahey and Marcella Detroit seemed fractured to the extent that only a seismic climate change event of that magnitude would have been considered as a precursor to a reunion.  And yet here they are.

Bygones are bygones, hatchets have been buried, and an unfinished story has a new chapter being written before our very eyes.

As they walked onto Glasgows Royal Concert Hall stage in their Nudie Cohn inspired suits, and with Marco Pirroni (Adam & The Antz, Wolfmen) guitar slinging in their band, I felt that perception shift again, and a little frisson of emotion too.

I’d missed this band.

Rich Rewards

But this wasn’t the band that I had seen at Glastonbury. They were better.

This is a band who has one foot planted firmly in the present, an eye on the future, and the foot that is trailing in the past is only doing so with a light touch. Only a casually given glance is given to meeting the needs of the nostalgia junkies in attendance, and that is as it should be. Here was Shakespears Sister as an ongoing artistic project and maybe, just maybe, that is where the magic lies. Everything is unfinished business. The story isn’t ever going to be over until these two ladies stop singing.

Of course much of the set is culled from Sacred Heart and the award winning Hormonally Yours, while there is nothing from the the sans Marcella albums 3 and Songs from the Red Room, but the focus is firmly on the material from the latest ep with those being performed from it not just holding their own against past glories but partially putting them in the shade.

A difficult job, but one that is met with heroic obstinance that delivers rich rewards as for possibly the first time that I can recall I didn’t witness an audience lose attention as new material was aired.

It has become the norm that anything other than hits and favourite songs from yesteryear is met with indifference when an act reforms, but the level of engagement didn’t dip at all and those attending seemed as hungry for new songs as they were to revisit the past. I could point to the strength of the material as the reason, or applaud the open-minded response from the audience, but both are legitimately strong reasons that carry their own weight.

Stay

Mega hit Stay was well received. How could it not be? And yet that it wasn’t considered as an encore – as most would have positioned it to ensure going out on a high – tells a story in itself. Instead it stood mid set tall and proud and served as testament to the quality of the band’s material overall. Imagine having this hit in your back catalogue and not having to rely on bowing out on it?

It says a great deal about the quality bar that they set themselves when writing and recording.

Most artists would consider it an albatross around their neck, a song that overshadows everything else, but within the framework of a show – while it is much loved – it doesn’t overshadow all that comes before and after it. Quite amazing when considered in this light.

In hindsight it is actually difficult to find anything to critique. Digging deep to find something to hang a negative on just feels churlish so I will resist the temptation and just end on saying it was a glorious return done for all the right reasons.

Vive Le Sisters doing it for themselves.