Review: Alexander O’Neal, Central Warehouse – ‘A chance to see a legend’

Alexander O’Neal and his nine-piece band hit Bristol as part of his ‘Time to Say Goodbye: Farewell World Tour’ where he is due to cover most of the UK culminating in a final appearance at the Royal Albert Hall next year.

This was an eagerly anticipated concert because this man has entertained crowds for almost five decades after first emerging in 1985.

His dynamic vocal ability coupled with modern soul productions created a swathe of fans not only in soul and club circles but also enabled mainstream chart success, gaining appreciation across the board for a string of some of the most memorable radio and club friendly tracks during the eighties.

Fast forward to 2023 and that appeal endures, a chance to see a legend.

The venue for tonight’s show might be a new name for many, Central Warehouse has barely been running for a year but has already peppered the calendar with a range of club nights and live shows, this event however, was demonstration that they mean serious business.

By branching out into a more commercial booking they tested the capability of the venue to hold such events, which is fantastic for Bristol, we have another large live music venue to bring more high-profile musical events to the city.

However unlike some of the more established venues on the tour, this was not an all seat-affair, Central Warehouse is all standing and I’m told the dance floor capacity is 1700, which I think is a good thing for Alex’s tour as it provided more of a party atmosphere.

The early crowd were treated to Krush who provided us with 80’s soul-house crossover vibes, warming up the venue perfectly for Bristol favourites Laid Blak.

By now the venue was mostly full and people were getting into party mode. Laid Blak live were a perfect choice for a warmup, they play a range of upbeat, dance floor friendly tracks covering Soul, Hip Hop, Reggae and Jungle.

Wherever I have seen them play, the crowd always enjoys the occasion and tonight they did Bristol proud again.

Covering tracks such as It’s a Pity, Bristol Love and My Eyes are Red, they finished things off by breaking into a jungle workout to get the crowd moving nicely in preparation for Alex.

Alex’s nice piece band stepped up to the stage, with a warm introduction from one of them complimented by visuals of Alex whirling in the background.

They started off with Make You Love Me, the horns made use of the track’s punchy staccato rhythms to perk everyone up and get the energy flowing.

Alex introduced the next track by telling us “ I like the sound of women screaming” , don’t worry nothing ominous here, he was inviting the women in the venue to make some noise to introduce Sunshine which is one of his more romantic ballads.

The sweeter RnB vibe continued with All True Man and then a medley of songs in quick succession including the more electro-grooved Innocent and Fake just to mix things up and excite the crowd.

Alex introduced us to Antonio Jackson all the way from Pheonix to enchant us with an Alto Sax for a virtuoso performance introduction to the beautiful track Never Knew Love Like This which was performed in a duet with Cherelle, the original singer and one of the backing singers.

The Alto sung out in the second half of the track poking through to take us to dizzying heights. They then transitioned into the sweet melodies of Saturday Love, some of us may remember seeing this on Top of The Pops back in the day.

Alex sat down to give the men a pep talk, “This is for the guys who get accused of parking their orange Mercedes outside another women’s house” followed by the suitably entitled track Hearsay.

Before thanking the crowd and everyone who has ever supported him, we then finished with arguably one of his most famous tracks, Criticise.

The extended version brought the biggest reaction from the crowd, everyone was worked into rapture when morphed into a final soul jam from the band, riffing off into an almighty crescendo of sound.

I think it’s fair to say that the crowd appreciated the set and the venue certainly worked well for such an occasion.

Hats off to the promoters and hopefully we’ll see more musical performances like this. Farewell Alex!

Main photo: Rich Green

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