Review: David Essex fans never lost faith in idol

David Essex ***
Playhouse Theatre

TEENYBOPPERS are, of course, firmly lodged in David Essex's past. Or are they?

The make-up might not be as poorly applied, the skirts might not be as high and the shrieking might not reach the same lofty, glass-breaking notes, but to all intents and purposes, the busloads of forty-somethings transformed en masse into girly 17-year-olds one more time last night at the Playhouse.

Times may have changed and his curly brown hair and the irrepressibly cute grin may have turned into short grey hair with matching goatee, but as far as the mostly-female crowd were concerned, it was the 70s all over again.

Whatever it is about the stars of the 70s that seems to bring the mania out in audiences, Essex has it in spades.

After an odd audio montage that fired some of the crowd up, but had others scratching their heads, the band came on to louder yells. The screaming was reserved for the star though, who meandered cheerfully onstage wearing a perhaps unfortunate grandad shirt, waistcoat and jeans. Not quite the frock coat of yesteryear, but stylish enough.

Beginning with a couple of songs from his recent album, Happy Ever After and Before I Met You, each of which received friendly applause, he turned the heat up a little with Me And My Girl (Nightclubbing) to rapturous roars. Clearly an audience of history students.

At first glance, Essex appeared to be grimmer and wearier than his legend had him. It didn't take long for the "cheeky wee boy" face to come out, however as though he was enjoying playing a grumpy old man (of 60) but couldn't keep it going for very long before bursting into that trademark lop-sided grin.

Every now and then he would tease the crowd and gently wiggle a leg or pull off a little dance move to the obvious delight of all the ladies.

His sense of fun came out during If I Could – when he sang the lyric "would you be my wife", the entire audience yelled "yes" in reply.

"We're going to need a bigger house," he said to guitarist Dave Needham.

From that moment on, he took every opportunity to tease the crowd, and they lapped it up.

The star clearly enjoys performing and interacting with audiences.

On one song, he was so entranced shaking hands with the front row during an instrumental break, that he almost missed his cue.

Commenting on Edinburgh's fabulous weather of the last few days, he brought the temperature down a few degrees briefly for a well received A Winter's Tale.

All the top ten hits were there – Rock On, Silver Dream Racer and Lamplight.

Hold Me Close even had the few men in the audience singing merrily along.

Essex had been slightly straining to reach some of the higher notes in his repertoire, but he did a fair job on Gonna Make You A Star, aided admirably and comically by the audience on the "I don't think so" part of the lyric.

David Essex was a teen idol for most of the 70s. For some people, he still is.