Simon RushworthRomeo’s Daughter @Newcastle Trillians, March 24 2022
As Cannot Be The One drifted into the Tyneside night, enough was enough for one Trillians punter.
Without warning he picked up his coat from the side of the stage and strode purposefully towards the exit…straight past the band and up the stairs.
No wonder a bemused Leigh Matty looked on aghast…and later looked to the rest of the crowd for some kind of explanation.
Cannot Be The One? Maybe he was. But thankfully he was the only one who left this AOR masterclass before the end.
Seriously, who would give up the chance to savour a greatest hits set from melodic rock royalty Romeo’s Daughter?
Gigs like this don’t come around too often — even without a global pandemic thrown into the mix.
And a show delayed by two years was well worth the wait as Matty and co. made the most of this rarest of trips to Tyneside.
Trillians Crowd In Raptures
Sweet reminiscence underpinned a set hewn from Romeo’s Daughter’s peerless pop rock past.
There was talk of playing the much-missed Mayfair back in the late 80s.
And delight that 2012’s collector’s item Rapture is about to be revisited via a vinyl reissue Stateside.
Matty delivered the band’s late 80s classics with trademark passion.
And everything about this polished set paid homage to a past rooted in melodic rock perfection (it’s no surprise that über producer Mutt Lange agreed to produce part of the band’s self-titled debut).
But it would be wrong to add the name of Romeo’s Daughter to the nostalgia act column.
Because one of the best surprises of the night was news that a brand new album is in the can…and set for release later this year.
There must have been a strong temptation to freshen up a tried and tested setlist with a couple of new tunes.
But this tour was originally booked for 2020 and the Newcastle show mirrored the set rolled out in London during February of that year…just weeks before Britain was locked down by Covid.
Heaven In The Toon
There was the brave decision to open with Heaven In The Back Seat — Romeo’s Daughter’s biggest hit and the song synonymous with the band’s brief flirtation with fame 35 years ago.
Perhaps that was the only track the chap with the coat had come to see?
Then there was the deep dive into the rest of the band’s iconic debut as Velvet Tongue, Colour You A Smile and Inside Out served as a timely reminder of Matty’s instinctive and intuitive partnership with guitarist Craig Joiner.
Credit to the chap helming the mix at the right of the bar: aside from some brief feedback Romeo’s Daughter never sounded better pumped through Trillians’ trusty PA.
A consummate take on I Cry Myself To Sleep At Night roused those starting to flag on a work night.
And not for the first time in her career, Matty outshone the Wilson sisters with the encore-sealing Wild Child — a tune penned by Lange, Joiner and keyboardist Tony Mitman and later picked as the opening track on Heart’s double platinum banger Brigade.
Sweet Crisis? What Crisis?
That was the Heart.
But support Sweet Crisis provided the soul.
Quite capable of filling the Temperance Movement-sized gap in your rock and roll life, the British blues rockers paced their way through the pick of meandering debut Tricks On My Mind.
Standout track Ain’t Got Soul positions the Cambridge quintet somewhere between Bad Company and Humble Pie but there’s plenty for Rivals Sons fan to love here.
And did we mention that the band’s merch puts the Sweet into Sweet Crisis…