FOR a few minutes at the end of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s latest concert, Lighthouse Poole was transformed into one huge disco with pretty much the entire audience on its feet, dancing down memory lane.
Yes you read that right.
Well, it was Saturday night and what are you gonna do as the orchestra smash their way though the massive hits of the 70s in Symphonic Bee Gees?
This show is a celebration of the 65th anniversary of the group’s formation and their musical legacy, with record sales of more than 220 million, setting them among the best-selling artists of all time.
In the concert hall it was clear from the start that quite a few people itching to do what the song says. You Should Be Dancing.
They were restrained at first but as the hits flowed and Night Fever arrived to herald the string of Saturday Night Fever numbers, there was no holding back.
The 1977 Robert Stigwood New York movie starring John Travolta sparked a cultural phenomenon and the Bees Gees music was the biggest selling soundtrack for two decades (more than 40 million copies sold to date) beginning a miraculous string of number ones including Night Fever, How Deep Is Your Love and Stayin’ Alive which ended the set.
The BSO players were unleashed under the baton of conductor, orchestrator and arranger, Robert Balcombe, the brilliant vocals of Stuart Matthew Price (with the Barry Gibb falsetto), Graham Bickley, Patrick Smyth and Abbie Osmon and the superb work of the BSO’s technical team.
The genius of this show is it does not try to replicate the Bees Gees sound (how could anyone even attempt such a thing) but with the beautiful individual voices and the stunning, crystal clear and pin sharp harmonies produces a fantastic, utterly joyful and evocative tribute to this iconic group.
Stuart’s riffing on Nights on Broadway (which led to a whole new sound for the group when Barry Gibb was asked to give it a go) was especially exhilarating.
There were many other highlights. Massachusetts, Words, Manhattan Skyline, Tragedy, Islands in the Stream, Woman in Love written for Barbra Streisand, Heartbreaker (Dionne Warwick) and Chain Reaction (Diana Ross).
Night on Disco Mountain (Modest Mussorgsky's Night on Bare Mountain) was a barnstormer and Manhattan Skyline is just THE sound of 1970s New York.
The encore was, what else, You Should Be Dancing. By then everyone was.
To take a line from Nights on Broadway. Crazy Night.
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