I was dragged along under protest to see Simply Red. Although I thought their first album was very good, I thought that their second served no purpose other than to soundtrack yuppie dinner parties, so the prospect of seeing them live did not excite me in the slightest.
However, before they slithered onto the stage we had Terence Trent D'arby to contend with. I must confess that I'd never heard of TTD so I had no idea what to expect. What we got was a soul singer with great songs and a stage presence somewhere between James Brown and Michael Jackson. I was convinced that I was watching a major new talent, and indeed his first album "The Hardline According to Terence Trent D'arby" was very successful. I was therefore very disappointed for him when his second album "Neither Fish Nor Flesh" utterly stiffed. This album was very ambitious, didn't have many instantly accessible pop songs, and was seemingly just too difficult a listen for the people who'd bought his first album. Pity.
Perhaps if he'd aimed for being bland (not to be confused with Bobby 'Blue'Bland) he'd have sold as many truckloads of records as Simply Red. Nothing remotely challenging about them. To be fair, Mick Hucknall wrang every last drop of emotion possible out of each song, but quite frankly when the band looked as bored as they did it simply wasn't enough. The musicians looked as if they were being paid by the note and were thinking about what they were going to eat, drink, smoke or shag when they walked offstage. The audience loved it, but really listening to the album at home would probably have been a far more exciting experience. They certainly didn't appear to care that they'd just been blown offstage by Terence Trent D'arby. Probably the most boring hour-and-a-half that I've spent in a music venue, and one I won't get back either.
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