Spike of The Quireboys, The Cavern, December 2021 Review by Dawn Osborne

It’s the day before Christmas Eve and Omicron warnings are keeping many people indoors, but there is still a packed pub raising many a glass waiting to see Spike of The Quireboys and Chris Heilmann (Shark Island, formerly Torme) deliver a night of acoustic numbers and tall tales.

 

The show had been billed as Spike and Chris’s Christmas Miracle and sure enough Spike led with a beautiful atmospheric version of ‘White Christmas’, but for comedic effect kept pretending to mess it up and start again even when the crowd indicated they wanted to hear it. But as he reverted to, at least for the first half of proceedings, a very similar set as the last time he played here comprising mainly cover songs it was clearly a comic ruse.  He soon got down to business with Lindisfarne’s ‘Run For Home’, the Stones’ ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ and The Temptations ‘Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)’. It’s a relaxed smiley affair with Spike commenting “we’re amongst friends” indeed he teased members of the crowd he recognised throughout with wild exaggerated often clearly untrue stories about them for maximum hilarity. He removed his red carnation and gave it to the sound man adding ‘This is the part of the show where I usually give this to a beautiful woman, but tonight I am giving it to him. You can sell this to the Japanese on EBay for fifty quid’ before taking off his jacket and saying ‘That was Marc Bolan’s jacket and I just threw it on the floor.’ Part of the fun of the show is working out what’s true and what’s not. You decide.

 

Following with a soulful version of ‘Darlin’ as a ‘tribute to Frankie Miller’ Spike then introduced his comrade Chris as a former member of Torme and said he used to go out with a ‘Flake girl’ a cue for a fantastic serenade of ‘Only The Crumbliest Flakiest Chocolate’ from the ad, Spike clearly missed his vocation. Up next was Elkie Brookes’ ‘Pearl’s A Singer’ with Spike adding it was his dad’s favourite song, before doing ‘Fortune’ which he’d done as a duet with Bonnie Tyler and explaining his mum was impressed because she’s heard of Bonnie Tyler but asked which bit was him, joking that even he and Bonnie couldn’t tell and adding that Bonnie can drink Guns n Roses, LA Guns and anyone else under the table. He finished this portion of the set with another Frankie Miller ‘Raining Whiskey’ before a break in which Santa hats were given out which did help to raise the Christmas spirit.

 

Coming back to the stage Spike paid tribute to Robin Le Mesurier (the son of Dad’s Army actor John Le Mesurier and Hattie Jacques) “who meant so much to me” who had died the previous evening and had played with Rod Stewart and Johnny Hallyday and been the naughty member of The Wombles, cue a riotous version of ‘Underground Overground Wombling Free’ with a number of the audience knowing all the words.  It’s back to the music with ‘House of The Rising Sun’ before a string of apocryphal stories about Rod Stewart and a cover of ‘The First Cut Is The Deepest’.

 

Things come a little closer to home with ‘How Come It Never Rains’ and a story about how Tyla played him that song fully clothed in an empty bathtub and how Spike had thought it was “one of the greatest songs I’d ever heard” before getting the crowd to “Give It Up For Guy Bailey” after ‘I Don’t Love You Anymore”. There’s a long story about getting Bono from U2’s mum pissed on an airplane before ‘There She Goes Again” and solo album track ‘So Far so Good’ before a mention of Spike considering joining Frankie Goes To Hollywood and a slightly Christmassy end with ‘The Power of Love’ and a Xmas song Spike said he had written after being hounded by his mum for years to do something Seasonal. It was short and sweet about raising your glass and full of Christmas Greetings Spike did not say what it was called so I will just call it ‘Spike’s Christmas song’ for reference.

 

It was a fun evening that took the edge off the doom and gloom that the rapacious growth of Omicron has caused. Unfortunately I had to rush off as I wanted to get the last tube across London home, but it felt like a Christmas Party and I journeyed home with a smile.

 

Dawn Osborne