I must start this review with a confession: I only asked to cover this show because Mark Wynter has recently joined the lineup. My sister used to belong to his fan club, so I thought it would be nice to invite her along.
It was going to be depressing, I thought. Sad, ageing rockers, whose voices had disappeared, and were only still touring because they couldn’t accept they were has-beens.
Boy, was I wrong.
The Solid Gold Rock ‘n’ Roll Show features Marty Wilde, Eden Kane, Mike Berry, and, now, Mark Wynter. They have a cumulative age of 300, and all were discovered in their teens. That’s a lot of experience.
They are all more limber than many people far younger, they all still have their hair and, most importantly of all – they still have their fabulous voices.
Yes, they’ve aged – some grey hair, a little extra weight – but haven’t we all? Actually, that’s not exactly true. Mike Berry seems not to have changed at all since I last saw him in 1980, and clearly has a portrait in the attic.
Their energy is phenomenal, although they joke with the audience about their creaky joints and stiff backs. It doesn’t seem to stop them going down on one knee to serenade audience members, or sitting on the edge of the stage, and getting back up without the assistance of – well, anything, really.
They banter a lot with the audience, mainly at their own expense. They’ve all known each other a long time, and are clearly working together because they enjoy it. They are relaxed, they are confident, and they all know they own that stage.
The playlists are not predictable either. Of course they sing their hits – although I was terribly disappointed not to hear Mark Wynter sing Here Comes Summer – but they also perform a load of other stars’ crowd-pleasers, to keep us singing along way past the time the show is due to end.
Separately and together, they put on the best show you’ll see for a very long time. Old rockers never die. That’s it. No punchline.