Yahoo! Music Review

Gig played on 29/04/08

Uncertainty surrounds this gig as we await the long-awaited live comeback of one of pop's true surviving icons. Edwyn Collins' first return to touring proper after suffering two strokes in 2005 was never going to be judged by normal standards. His last album, "Home Again", may have been a corker, but it was recorded before his illness; he's had a long and gruelling wait to tour these songs. As it turns out, if not quite a normal show, it's no musical therapy session either.

Collins deals with the situation with professional determination and grace; it must be galling for a man once so suave and smooth a singer to have to work so hard on every note, but for the first two songs, spirited and light run-throughs of Orange Juice's "Falling And Laughing" and "Poor Old Soul", with closed eyes, you'd hardly know there was anything amiss. When you open them again, there's Edwyn, perched on an amp, looking very dapper; it's only in his clenched fists and halting, measured speech that his condition betrays itself.

"It's lovely to be back", he tells the crowd. "I had a stroke you know, and it affected me greatly. But I'm developing my progress." There are riotous cheers and he launches smartly into the gentle, Scott Walkerish title track of "Home Again". Collins' guest guitarist in his fine band is none other than Aztec Camera's Roddy Frame, whose ringing, liquid technique is as astonishing as ever. Some wag even calls out to request some Aztec. "No", grins Edwyn firmly. "Orange Juice and Edwyn Collins... Well, maybe a little Aztec Camera." Roddy obliges with a snatch of "Oblivious", before Collins announces. "Right, let's get serious."

A warm, relaxed "Make Me Feel Again", with Teenage Fanclub-esque twanging guitar from Roddy, is topped by a lush lope through the timeless "Rip It Up" and then the disco ballad "You'll Never Know (My Love)", featuring feather-light Jimmy Sommerville guest falsetto from Luca Santucci. The crowd persist in yelling requests and when Collins' patient explanation that he can't actually remember all the songs yet gets a little lost in his dysphasia, Frame steps in. "That'll teach you to shout out for songs, you heartless bastard", he quips wryly. "Are you proud of yourself?" Collins chuckles and any ill-feeling is gone.

By the time he gets round to the inevitable "A Girl Like You", Collins' voice is fading a little, but he gets visibly lost in the vocal refrain. The cheers are huge as he makes his way painstakingly offstage, before returning for a three track encore, including one new song, the spare, countryish nursery rhyme of "Searching For The Truth" ("One sweet day, we'll get there"), Orange Juice's Blue Boy and B-side "Don't Shilly Shally". Edwyn Collins certainly hasn't shilly shallied tonight; on this evidence, he's racing up the road to recovery.

by Emily Mackay