Alex Band of The Calling, Psycho Village, Living Dead Stars - Bannerman's  Bar, Edinburgh 11 February 2020

‘So lately, been wondering’….where the hell has soft-rock crooner Alex Band been since we last saw him with The Calling at Glasgow Academy in 2004?

Mega-hit ‘Wherever You Will Go’ rocketed him to the top of the charts in 2001 but there were only ever two albums by The Calling, followed by an excellent solo album in 2010. But since then, not much. Sadly, it turns out that Alex has been battling early-onset Parkinson’s Disease for some time and he’s not had much luck in other areas either with three marriages, record company trouble and even a post-gig abduction and robbery dragging him down.

Happily it looks like Alex is getting back on track as he’s in the middle of a 52 date European Tour. Bannerman’s must be one of the smallest venues he’s ever played but there’s a sold-out crowd to greet him, including a healthy contingent of ladies of a certain vintage, prompting the venue to remind patrons not to grab the singer as he makes his way through the crowd (there’s no backstage at Bannerman’s).

At first glance, he looks frailer than before but he’s still got great hair and teeth and OMG the voice is undiminished – still a honey-toned thing of beauty, capable of loosening knicker elastic and hitting all the notes with ease.

The set is predominantly from The Calling’s albums, starting with ‘One by One’, ‘Adrienne’ and the classic ‘Our Lives’. It’s an all new band but they’re excellent, particularly Joey Clement on Bass / Backing Vocals and Travis Loafman, who does a decent Santana impression on the ‘Why Don’t You & I’ collaboration from 2003.

One of the highlights is ‘Tonight’ from the re-issued ‘We’ve All Been There’ solo album and we even get a new song ‘Stand Up’ with the promise of an album later this year. Of course, he plays ‘that song’ which he apparently wrote when he was 15. He’s still only 38 years old so there should be much more to come from Alex and he disappoints nobody tonight. He’s on tour for a while yet and Scottish fans get another chance to see him at Broadcast, Glasgow on 10th March. Don’t miss it.

The main support on the tour are likeable Austrians, Psycho Village. They do a nice line in modern melodic rock on ‘Perfect’ and are almost Calling-like on ‘It’s Okay’ which gets good crowd buy-in on the singalong section. There’s plenty variety of style though; some post-grunge stuff, electro-stylings on ‘What Was That’ and the bouncy ‘Tell Me’ which causes Dani to bang his head on the low ceiling. They’re another band who have had some troubles on the road, including bus fires, bus crashes, stolen cash from a hotel room and very bad behaviour from a headline band’s singer, but like the title track of their new album, they’re ‘Unstoppable’.

Melodic hard rock band, Living Dead Stars, open the show. They were formed by Singer, Manuel Nox, in London but now operate out of Huntington Beach, LA. They have an interesting look and style with some decent tunes, including ballad ‘Fading Away’. This tour will let them road test the new line-up and songs and there’s an album expected this year, so one to watch out for.