Written By: Carole Bayley
Format: Music Show
Genre: Music
Date: June 23 2018
Location: Epstein Theatre, Liverpool
This was the first performance in Liverpool by Jive Talkin’ and hopefully it won’t be their last.
The Bee Gees, born on the Isle Of Man and a group who were generous enough to give a lot of their good tunes to other artists, were celebrated by Jive Talkin’.
The good old classic Bee Gees songs never did fail to have my feet tapping and body moving. Their song lyrics are memorable, whether you want them to be or not. So it was music to my ears, literally, when reviewing this gig.
Jive Talkin’ consisted of two brothers and a nephew, which was sort of in keeping with the family theme of the original Bee Gees. They were supported by a four-piece band, one of them being a superb guitarist of 6’8 who is a Liverpool bloke. He did an exceptional couple of solo pieces that stole the stage for the time he was performing.
Look-a-like wise, they are not the Bee Gees, but a seriously great attempt was pulled off to depict them, including their clothes, hair and even their glasses in the first half. There were a set of costumes for the first half, and a change into the Saturday Night Fever ensemble for the second half.
The first half gave us popular sounds that you would expect to hear from the 1960s and 1970s; my personal favourites were Words and Saved By The Bell.
The second half was brought to life when they sang Stayin’ Alive – this literally brought the majority of the audience to their feet dancing, and most of them stayed up for the majority of the second half. The Bee Gees still raise funds for Unicef through their song Too Much Heaven, which was sang here.
The second half continued with iconic songs that everyone knew and loved. There was a composition of melodies, which started with I walked A Lonely Street that went wrong by the band (I am not sure whether this was deliberate or not). However, it was extremely endearing to see the boys in fits of giggles trying to pull it together. And they succeeded in doing so.
We thought the show had finished with Jive Talkin’, but after loud chants from the audience, the band came back for one last song – and it had to be the fantastic tune of Tragedy.
The boys took a bow and left the stage, well nearly – Maurice did not see the speaker in the middle of the stage, and literally tripped over it and fell to the floor. This I am sure was not deliberate!
Overall, it was a performance which the whole audience enjoyed and one I would watch again.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10 – Good
