Friday, August 21

Tag: Night Owl Shows

The Legend of Queen – Surgeons’ Hall Grand Theatre
Scotland

The Legend of Queen – Surgeons’ Hall Grand Theatre

There are some voices you simply cannot mistake. Peter Marchant gets remarkably close to one of them. Close your eyes during The Legend of Queen and you are pretty much there. Open them and you are definitely not. But that is rather the point. This is not a Freddie Mercury impersonation act, it is an exceptionally accomplished celebration of the music. Marchant particularly captures the compressed, slightly shredded quality of Mercury’s lower register. It is instantly identifiable and extremely well done. At the very top, he cannot quite reach those extraordinary Mercury heights, but two very able backing singers take the sound onwards and upwards. It is clever arranging around a voice that was always going to be almost impossible to reproduce. Musicianship throughout is up ...
007 Voices of Bond – theSpace @ Symposium Hall
Scotland

007 Voices of Bond – theSpace @ Symposium Hall

007 Voices of Bond is any James Bond fan’s dream. Brought to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by Night Owl Shows, this hour-long concert takes the audience on a journey through the title tracks of Bond. Other than the opening number, Diamonds are Forever, the songs are performed in chronological order of release date, charting the evolving style of the music through the decades. Between each song either Maia Elsey, the truly phenomenal lead singer, or a pre-recorded video of ‘Mike’ (a hilarious yet informative M stand in), provide the audience with the context of each track. How they came to be made, what the meaning behind the song is, and its place within the wider world of music. These brief interludes were fascinating, and enhanced the experience from beyond just spectacle, to a genuine e...