WORDS AND IMAGES SAM HOLT
Tonight, Texas stopped off in Cardiff Utillita Arena as part of their arena tour, a tour that culminates in two nights in their hometown Glasgow later this weekend. The bands line up remains formed around the nucleus of vocalist Sharleen Spiteri, bass player Johnny McElhone, and Ally McErlane on guitar. These days they are joined by Eddie Campbell on Keyboards, Tony McGovern has taken over guitar duties for live shows, and Cat Myers on drums. Wayback in 1989 they released I Don’t Want A Lover, it was the song that hurled them to chart success reaching the top ten and brought them to the attention of many. Last year they released a compilation Very Best of 1989-2023, and its one that’s been a fantastic showcase of their music.
For this tour they are joined by another Scottish act, KT Tunstall. I had caught Texas previously this year when they headlined Saturday at the popular Wychwood Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse and was very impressed so wanted to catch them again.
KT Tunstall made her way across the stage at 7.30, to play a fantastic opening set as support, and as the Edinburgh born singer songwriter tells us ‘When Texas ring asking for support you simply do it, so my job tonight is to warm up the crowd”, and did a fantastic job. Tonight she is joined by Andy Burrows on drums, but also fills in with bass and guitar duties at various points during the set. It wasn’t until KT started playing “America” the penny dropped it was Andy Burrows of Razorlight. What followed was an entertaining set that included the well known hits “Black Horse” and “Cherry Tree”, and “Suddenly I See”, but was interspersed with “Walk Like an Egyptian” and a tribute to fellow scot Annie Lennox, “Sweet Dreams”. While the set was short it was an infectious set that was an excellent start to the evening and certainly warmed up the crowd ready for the main act. KT Tunstall was an act I had an open mind on, but the energy she put into was so much that I was left feeling hugely impressed, KT had definitely set the tone for the evening.
At 8.45 the houselights dimmed for the main act and from the opening slide guitar of Tony, the pounding beat of Cat and Johnny for “I Don’t Want A Lover” I knew we are in for a real treat, and as front woman Sharleen tells us ‘We’ve got 35 years of music to get through tonight’ and looked fabulous in a dark suit that sparkles as the light catches it.
Her rapport with the audience and banter with the band is infectious, but it’s not just us that catches the interaction as the vocalist leaned over to the security guy in the pit and asked him to move so she could have a better view. As expected, a multitude of hits flowed and the set included a great variety from their back catalogue. As the proud Scot walked up to the second level of the stage that housed the drums and keyboard set up Sharleen played a fabulous version of Al Green’s “I’m Tired Of Being Alone” on the keys that had a very rich traditional organ sound reminding us that “when we started we were into country blues”.
The thing that’s always struck me about Texas as while always defined as an alt-rock band, their style crosses over many boundaries and yet they do it so well. Cardiff lets go mental she shouts as the band launch into “Summer Sun”, a hit from the bands Hush Album. While the huge screens during the night have featured images of the band, tonight’s audience and original song videos, for this song, it shows the outline of a huge Sun that drops as it finishes it’s met with thunderous applause.
“Insane” followed and showcased the Glaswegian Singers incredibly powerful voice and featuring some great keyboard work from the Eddie Campbell, in a jazz style, and was another style slipping into the set. As the band left the Sharleen did a beautiful version of “Put Your Arms Around Me”. Cat and Tony came back to the stage for the rest of the acoustic part of the set that culminated in a fine version of “Sleep” featuring a great duet between Tony and Sharleen.
The hits continued to flow as Johnny and Eddie returned to the stage for the rest of the set. I absolutely loved Sharleen’s comment introducing the last song of the set, “”Say What You Want this time “We all know it’s not the last song, but it’s an ego thing”.
Obviously, it wasn’t the end of the show as they returned for a fabulous version of “Inner Smile”, it was also a chance for Spiteri to slip into her leather outfit she had worn back in 2001 and was proud to say it still fits! to close the show with an incredible version of the song made famous by Elvis although was a Mark James cover “Suspicous Minds”.
It was an amazing show, the stage set was great, the sound was on point, the lighting complemented it well. The band are incredible musicians working together exceptionally well but it is Sharleen Spiteri with her wit, her humour and banter that make for a fabulous show. It’s not just a gig, they know how to put on a show, and the crowd of about 5000 absolutely loved it, singing, dancing and having a great time, exactly as Live Music should be.
SET LIST
1/ I Don’t Want a Lover
2/ Halo
3/ Everyday Now
4/ The Conversation
5/ Hi
6/ In Our Lifetime
7/ Tired of Being Alone
(Al Green cover)
8/ Keep on Talking
9/ Summer Son
10/ Insane
11/ Let’s Work It Out
12/ When we are together
13/ Put Your Arms Around Me
(acoustic)
14/ Sleep
(acoustic)
15/ In Demand
(acoustic)
16/ Mr Haze
17/ Black Eyed Boy
18/ Say What You Want
Encore:
19/ Inner Smile
20/ Suspicious Minds
(Mark James cover)
FOLLOW TEXAS
FOLLOW KT TUNSTALL
My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago
