Thomas Dolby, Palais, Nottingham

Supported By Martin McAloon 

Tonight I am at the Palais for a gig the first time since 1986. In fact, it is almost 40 years to the day from when I saw Gary Glitter on 26th May that year. The less said about that the better but this was the venue for Tuesday's Student Night when I was at Trent University and they had several gigs there. 

Looking around, it hasn't actually changed much. The layout seems pretty much the same, even the stage is in same place as 40 years ago. The Palais, which opened in 1925 so is now over 100 years old, later became Ritzy, before reverting back to being the Palais, before becoming Oceana, PRYZM and now saved from administration by Rock City's owners, it's the Palais once again. One design fault they've added is the hand dryers in the toilets seem really loud and drown out the quiet moments on stage but... that aside... all good. 

Support tonight is from Martin McAloon who comes onto a stage where there are six guitars lined and for a man playing solo, he impressively uses four of them. He announces that he’s from Deacon Blue and his first song is called 'Real Gone Kid' before he lurches into 'Faron Young'. 

He is of course from Prefab Sprout whom he formed with his older brother Paddy and they were later joined by Wendy Smith. I'm not sure what happened to her but Paddy now suffers from a detached retina and tinnitus brought on by the hearing disorder Meniere’s Disease. Prefab Sprout rarely toured back in the day and are a band I never managed to see live. Now with Paddy unable to, Martin is the sole purveyor of their music which he has played live since 2023.  

Tonight he is lively, chatty and funny, which I wasn’t expecting but I'm not sure why I thought he wouldn't be. His set is impressive because these are difficult songs to play solo even though his guitar playing is exemplary and to his credit he doesn’t reach for any backing tracks. Some work better than others. 'Cowboy Dreams' for instance is excellent and surprisingly so to is 'When Love Breaks Down' which is epic. 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll' is fantastically ambitious and he needs help from the crowd, which isn’t that numerous, but it’s a fabulous effort. 

Seeing him is a novel but great experience and tonight he is supporting the man who produced many of Prefab Sprout’s albums, Thomas Dolby. 

Dolby opens with a cover of New Order's 'Blue Monday'. I’m not sure why. It’s ok but why would you? When you’re a revered artist who plays live so infrequently and has an acclaimed back catalogue that has a cult following and loads of material you rarely or never play. Why? Just why? Just saying. 

Thankfully after that he settles down and plays three of his own tracks including 'One Of Our Submarines', where he tells a great story about how the song was inspired by the World War II experiences of his uncle, and an exceptional 'The Flat Earth'. 

Unlike McAloon he is using backing tracks and sampling but which you'd expect because he's a self-confessed electronics geek. 

After a brief career as an artist, Dolby mainly became a producer but he also performed with David Bowie at Live Aid and Roger Waters at The Wall in Berlin. He moved to the USA in 1986 and is now head of Music for New Media for the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. This brings us on to his new project 'Iconic ’80s: My Personal Recollections'. He explains why he's doing this or tries to but... again, why would you when... I know, I’m such a pessimist and a sceptic. 

He brings on two guests for this, Jakko Jakzyk of King Crimson on guitar and Mat Hector on drums, but not his Ukrainian bass player Ana Pshokina who they wouldn't let into the country. She performs on pre-recorded video instead. 

They perform three symphonies called numbers Two, Three and Four which are supposed to explain the 80s to those too young to be there. Right. I think recollections may vary. Number Four does at least seem to have a theme running through it but of course the others may have done as well and it's just that I missed it. 

He asks us what we think of his experiment and... well, some people seemed to like it but it's really not my thing and it was a really long haul but now we are through it and we're back to his originals with the band remaining on stage to help him out. 

Next though is 'My Brain Is Like a Sieve' which is another oddity as it features lead vocals performed by Jason Mraz, who like his Ukrainian bass player appears on pre-recorded video. 

Thankfully our stamina to have made it this far is rewarded with the excellent 'Europa and the Pirate Twins' and then 'She Blinded Me With Science'. 

He comes back for an encore of his only big hit 'Hyperactive!' (number 17 in 1984) which features Martin McAloon on guitar and then the band leave him to close the night solo with the classic 'Airwaves'. 

Overall, a very odd but entertaining night with so much to unpack.