In the early part of the set, Parker and the Rumour laid it on with shovels. Even those numbers with a skip in the beat, a riff or a repeat phrase, came out in the same monochrome. To make any sense of the brass in the earlier line-up, they had to vary the colouring, but now three guitars and keyboards all fill the middle.

Parker has not gone all the way down that road. Suddenly, for the first enchore, he takes us back ten years to a Jackson Five number, the band sing several harmony parts, and a suspicion of soul tries to escape. If it's OK for an encore, why not at any other time?

Apart from the hard-core support from those inviting the band to knock them out, the set was getting an uneasy response. On "Heat Treatment", according to Parker, Dublin was supposed to "make Belfast look silly". It didn't happen, and it was only in the last quarter that Parker tried asking the crowd about the nature of the time they were having. A successful "Hey Lord" got him the answer he wanted, and Parker showed that he, too, could have a good time.

Then it was back to what he called "the heavy stuff" - well, more speedy than heavy. "Protection" should have stood out more, with it's reggae flavour. The slowed-up ending of "Soul Shoes" came apart, but they rushed on with "Nobody Hurts You" and then left the crowd with a lot of work to do to get them back.

With an accelerated "New York Shuffle" as the second enchore, the set came to an inconclusive end. We were bruised and beaten, but the band, relying on the volume controls, had barely worked up a lather.

- Brian Trench

Reproduced with kind permission from Brian Trench.

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