REVIEW: That’ll Be The Day – Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow

If it’s bang for your buck you’re looking for, a night filled with hit after hit from the 50s to the 80s, then you need look no further than That’ll Be The Day. Now approaching 40 years since its inception, the familiar team are back in Glasgow.

Opening with the battle cry Rock ‘n’ Roll Is Here To Stay, they aim to prove it. The subsequent sequence packs in some of the most iconic tunes of the 50s: Stupid Cupid, Sea Cruise, Poetry in Motion and Personality to name a few. The toes are tapping and the shoulders are shaking in the auditorium from the first bars. The show charts a chronological path through a host of audience favourites from each decade accompanied by film clips of famous TV shows, comedy skits and ads of the era.

The sixties segment takes us from pre-British Invasion with songs like Be My Baby, Crazy, Cathy’s Clown, a Cliff and The Shadows section that features a rendition of guitar classis Man of Mystery, through The Beatles’ Hard Day’s Night and Can’t Buy Me Love, Chris Farlowe’s Out of Time, the Eurovision winning Puppet on a String, Dionne Warwick’s Do You Know The Way to San Jose, to the psychedelic end of the decade with Jesamine, Age of Aquarius/Let The Sun Shine In. There is also a tribute to the departed to the strains of The Kinks’ Days, and while fitting, does bring the euphoric mood down.

The timeline does go awry at times but an Abba Medley propels us through the 70s along with some middle-of-the-road hits from The Three Degrees and The Bellamy Brothers and Suzi Quatro’s Devil Gate Drive.

The show culminates at the 80s, with a-ha’s Take on Me, Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige’s I Know Him So Well, Roy Orbison’s You Got It and Dire Straights’ world-conquering Walk of Life.

The talent shines from the stage. The five-piece band/vocalists are impeccable and on point for the entirety of the show. The wide variety of musical styles they master deserves respect and admiration. Audience participation is encouraged and the Glasgow audience needs no encouragement, they are in fine voice throughout.

For all the quality and virtuosity on stage, the show isn’t without its faults. Creator and director Trevor Payne (who next year retires from the show at its Ruby Anniversary) is the weakest vocalist and commands a lot of stage time with unnecessary comedy sketches that are very much 1970s end of the pier fodder. The humour is not only outdated but neither funny nor appropriate for a 21st Century audience. There are too many bawdy, nudge-nudge wink-wink moments that raise more cringes than laughs. The over-long Mick Jagger parody sequence overstays its welcome and smacks of self-indulgence. Considering the phenomenal talent on stage, some self-awareness of your limitations might be of benefit to the show.

At a packed (almost) three hours long, the audience are certainly not short-changed. An impeccable band of musicians and vocalists deliver a quality production for a music-loving crowd. With the amount of repeat visitors in the audience, and the volume of the response, That’ll Be The Day will continue to pack houses up and down the country for years to come.

Continues to tour the UK throughout the year.