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Alexander O’Neal
Boisdale of Canary Wharf, London/Touring
ALEXANDER O’NEAL clearly subscribes to the showbiz motto “always leave them wanting more,” for this was a short and sweet set of less than a dozen numbers.
Yet it was difficult to feel shortchanged as the lights went up. We heard all his best stuff on the night and, in any case, the abbreviated cabaret approach seemed to suit Boisdale’s upmarket set-up, where diners push back their chairs to take in some post-prandial entertainment.
There’s also a suspicion that O’Neal, who has had some well-publicised health issues, is sensibly managing the pace on what for a 64-year-old is a substantial 60-date tour across Britain that will still be going on in February. After three numbers he retreated to his stool to sing Sunshine, followed by his best offering of the evening, If You Were Here Tonight.
BEN COWLES samples the many sonic and social therapies of Manchester Punk Festival 2026, and is ready again to smash capitalism
WILL STONE in entertained, and some, by the Irishman Shobsy and the Dutch/Kiwi combo My Baby
WILL STONE is impressed by a tour de force rendition of three decades’ worth of orchestral chamber pop
PETER MASON relishes a legend of Jamaican roots reggae still plying his trade with a large degree of spirit