Big Girls Don't Cry Queen's Hall Edinburgh 23rd May 2024 Review
Big Girls Don’t Cry at The Queen’s Hall Edinburgh was a chance for fans of the music of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons to enjoy an evening of these songs courtesy of tribute band “The East Coast Boys” and promoters “Entertainers”.
As you would expect for a band that had many of its original chart success pre 1965, many of the people in this audience tonight were of a certain age. There were, however, a lot of younger people too, and I suspect that the Four Seasons music has for them been discovered from the hugely successful Jersey Boys stage musical and the film of the same name directed by Clint Eastwood.
As a company, Entertainers have a large line up of tribute shows touring at any one time and their on-stage line-up is always subject to change, and this show is no different as one look at the band’s own website will give you many combination possibilities as to who could be the Four Seasons - Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito, who to many people were the classic band members. Whatever the on stage combination of talents for any show though, the promoters stick to one basic rule and that is to entertain their audience, and tonight as always they, and the team of professional musicians and entertainers on stage, did exactly that in Edinburgh.
I reviewed an earlier line-up of The East Coast Boys back in 2015 at the Brunton Hall in Musselburgh and this show tonight has not changed that much since then, some of the same jokes are even there, but to be honest, the show format does not need to change as it is all about these songs and in particular one very special voice, Frankie Valli, and one very special songwriter who knew exactly what type of songs were required, Bob Gaudio. Between the two of them, Frankie and Bob were an unstoppable combination of talents. As a songwriter Bob Gaudio also continued to produce so many great songs (often for Country and Western artists) long after the Four Seasons had left the stage spotlights.
The East Coast Boys as a band on stage are a typical tribute band, and by that I mean that they take on the personas of the originals, and I have to be fair that I find this to be a very outdated approach to this type of show now as audiences, I think, have moved on from needing this “illusion” and simply want to enjoy the music that they know and love so well. Somehow, people on stage in a show like this pretending to be other people does not work anymore and when you have a back catalogue of songs as strong as these ones, the music is best left to just speak for itself.
Almost as if to prove my point this show opened with, as you would expect one particular song, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and with a very good performer as Frankie Valli fronting the band so many classic songs including “Walk Like A Man”, “Rag Doll” and “Sherry” followed on. Of course, two great songs had to be on this set list too, “My Eyes Adored You” and “Can’t Take My Eyes off You”. Scotland and the Bay City Rollers owe the Four Seasons and Bob Gaudio a huge musical debt too for creating “Bye Bye Baby” and as you would expect, the audience reaction to this song was an instant success.
To be fair to this show, it does do a lot more than a straight song cover format and we get some history of the band in it along with some nice doo-wop song covers. We also get some of the later years of the band and Frankie Valli here too. Yes, some song harmonies and choreography on dance routines needs tightened up in some areas, but there is also a lot of humour to this show and these Four Seasons do know how to very quickly connect with their audiences and entertain them for an evening.
It was a cold and rainy evening in Edinburgh tonight and this audience came out in both, were entertained for the entirety of the show and many left singing their favourite song…job done I think by these “Four Seasons”.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
As you would expect for a band that had many of its original chart success pre 1965, many of the people in this audience tonight were of a certain age. There were, however, a lot of younger people too, and I suspect that the Four Seasons music has for them been discovered from the hugely successful Jersey Boys stage musical and the film of the same name directed by Clint Eastwood.
As a company, Entertainers have a large line up of tribute shows touring at any one time and their on-stage line-up is always subject to change, and this show is no different as one look at the band’s own website will give you many combination possibilities as to who could be the Four Seasons - Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Nick Massi and Tommy DeVito, who to many people were the classic band members. Whatever the on stage combination of talents for any show though, the promoters stick to one basic rule and that is to entertain their audience, and tonight as always they, and the team of professional musicians and entertainers on stage, did exactly that in Edinburgh.
I reviewed an earlier line-up of The East Coast Boys back in 2015 at the Brunton Hall in Musselburgh and this show tonight has not changed that much since then, some of the same jokes are even there, but to be honest, the show format does not need to change as it is all about these songs and in particular one very special voice, Frankie Valli, and one very special songwriter who knew exactly what type of songs were required, Bob Gaudio. Between the two of them, Frankie and Bob were an unstoppable combination of talents. As a songwriter Bob Gaudio also continued to produce so many great songs (often for Country and Western artists) long after the Four Seasons had left the stage spotlights.
The East Coast Boys as a band on stage are a typical tribute band, and by that I mean that they take on the personas of the originals, and I have to be fair that I find this to be a very outdated approach to this type of show now as audiences, I think, have moved on from needing this “illusion” and simply want to enjoy the music that they know and love so well. Somehow, people on stage in a show like this pretending to be other people does not work anymore and when you have a back catalogue of songs as strong as these ones, the music is best left to just speak for itself.
Almost as if to prove my point this show opened with, as you would expect one particular song, “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and with a very good performer as Frankie Valli fronting the band so many classic songs including “Walk Like A Man”, “Rag Doll” and “Sherry” followed on. Of course, two great songs had to be on this set list too, “My Eyes Adored You” and “Can’t Take My Eyes off You”. Scotland and the Bay City Rollers owe the Four Seasons and Bob Gaudio a huge musical debt too for creating “Bye Bye Baby” and as you would expect, the audience reaction to this song was an instant success.
To be fair to this show, it does do a lot more than a straight song cover format and we get some history of the band in it along with some nice doo-wop song covers. We also get some of the later years of the band and Frankie Valli here too. Yes, some song harmonies and choreography on dance routines needs tightened up in some areas, but there is also a lot of humour to this show and these Four Seasons do know how to very quickly connect with their audiences and entertain them for an evening.
It was a cold and rainy evening in Edinburgh tonight and this audience came out in both, were entertained for the entirety of the show and many left singing their favourite song…job done I think by these “Four Seasons”.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
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