Sananda Maitreya, Town Hall, Birmingham review - 80s megastar still has the chops

During a false start to “Billy Don’t Fall”, on Sunday night at Birmingham’s iconic Town Hall, Sananda Maitreya took the opportunity to address the packed house before him. He noted that there’s now a King on the throne of England, an American Pope and that “all the white ladies have got big lips and big asses – so, it’s a long time since we were here last.”

It certainly is an age since the artist formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby headlined a UK tour. Twenty-three years, to be precise. In fact, for those who don’t remember that far back, he was once a global superstar to rival anyone who was prepared to go up against him. In fact, if we lived in a parallel universe, Sanada Maitreya would probably be considered the equal of Prince.

Soul man, rocker, funkateer – he had the chops to excel in all those genres, and doubtless others too. Unfortunately for him, though, he had tremendous success from the outset and immediately became trapped by public and music business expectations. So, when he made it clear that he didn’t want to just repeat variations on his 8-million (to date) selling debut album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby, he was rapidly cast to the margins. Sananda didn’t just retire to a mansion and a life of outrageous decadence in a fit of pique though. In fact, he’s since released a further 13 albums: four as Terence Trent D’Arby and then another nine under his new name.

This has given Sananda quite a repertoire to populate his set, and he was keen to draw tunes from all periods of his career. So, after walking on stage with his Sugar Plum Pharaohs band, he ploughed straight into 2011’s “I Saw Her” and “The Birthday Song”, from his most recent album, The Pegasus Project. From there, he took in a plethora of relatively recent tunes, like the soulful pop of “Pretty Baby” and the more honkytonk sounding “This Side of Love” before strolling off again for a short break.

After giving the audience an opportunity to revisit the bar, Sananda and the Sugar Plum Pharaohs were back for a second set that kicked off with the mellow “Let Her Down Easy”, before striding onto the muscular funk of “Vibrator” and the psychedelic rocker “Supermodel Sandwich”. However, it was clear that the majority of the audience at Town Hall was really here to listen to tunes from Introducing the Hardline... and probably weren’t really aware of any of his releases since his late 80s pomp. Nevertheless, they stuck with him and lapped up the sounds on offer.

That said, the reaction to “Wishing Well”, “Sign Your Name” and “Let’s Go Forward” was noticeably more enthusiastic than to the likes of “It Ain’t Been Easy” and “Yuki Suzuki”. In fact, as Sananda announced the last tune of his second set, “Dance Little Sister” with “Get up outta your rockin’ chair, grandma!”, the crowd of predominantly 50- and 60-somethings finally properly let themselves go. But then, while that opening line was once a snarky statement of belligerence, it’s now more like a description of reality for most of those that were there.

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