Celebrating 60+ years of Bond themes, 007 Voices of Bond features Maia Elsey and the Night Owl band performing, mostly chronologically, just under a dozen songs from the film series’ history, sometimes accompanied by a guest performer for some duets, and by a projected “M” character for extra links and humour (as well as some inaccurate facts: Moonraker was made before For Your Eyes Only).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Craig era dominates, with all but one of his five themes making the show (Sam Smith’s proud first draft “The Writing’s On The Wall” is a wise omission), compared to two each for Connery and Moore’s longer runs (who get more than Dalton, who gets more than Brosnan). While this may result in disappointing omissions at least for some older fans – this is a Fringe-length show of a song canon which could rival many films in length – what most will consider the greatest hits are all accounted for, and the focus on Craig brings out some unexpected gems, with the duet of Quantum of Solace‘s mostly hated “Another Way To Die” being a barnstorming highlight of the show.
Maia Elsey is a wonderful host, likeable and humorous in the links and with a powerful voice and presence that can do both bombastic and sultry for the songs. Despite the band lacking Elsey’s showmanship (at different points she tried to interact visually with all of them, and I’m not sure they all noticed), they delivered pared down arrangements of these big orchestral tracks (occasionally augmented by some small pre-recorded pieces to cover the missing orchestra) with intelligence, as well as the professionalism and volume you want from a live performance.
I cannot imagine this joyous celebration of these classic film songs would disappoint any Bond fans at the Fringe. So if you were thinking of going to this show… well, you know its name.
007 Voices of Bond is running at theSpace TripleX until the 23rd August. Tickets can be found at: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/007-voices-of-bond
Reviewer: Oliver Giggins
Reviewed: 05th August 2025
North West End UK Rating:
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