Of those rock stars who have fallen out of consciousness in their native UK, you can file Chris Norman under the ‘Big in Europe’ category. The gravel-voiced former Smokie singer commands a devoted following abroad, particularly in Germany, but gigs in his home country are as rare as rocking horse sh*t.

Smokie have long been a guilty pleasure of mine, though I was never tempted in seeing the later versions of the band with a different singer playing the ‘chicken in a basket’ oldies circuit. However, I was so keen to finally see him, I even missed the London show the same night by my beloved Wishbone Ash for the first time in living memory.

My evening did not get off to a good start- on collecting tickets I’m sure I was told he’d be on at 8:30pm, so my partner and I went for food and rocked up at 8:15pm, only to find the concert in progress and we’d missed the first 15 minutes including a couple of Smokie hits in their cover of ‘Needles And Pins’ and ‘Lay Back In The Arms of Someone’. Luckily we took our seats just in time for a surprisingly early ‘Stumblin’ In’ with one of his band, acoustic guitarist Rachel Parga, duetting seamlessly in the Suzi Quatro role.

About to celebrate his 75th birthday, he must keep an ageing portrait in the attic and that feather cut had barely changed in the half century since Smokie hit the big time. Unfortunately he mentioned that he had been gamely ploughing through despite suffering from the ‘lurgy’ and was dosed up on antibiotics.

As the set wore on I was listening out and his voice did seem more faint than I expected, and he was clearly treating it gently and easing off on the trademark grittiness, though he could still carry the tunes, well supported by the band who were nearly all capable backing vocalists.

Among his originals, there was a medley of couple of Smokie hits in the reggae-fied It’s Your Life’ and unfairly neglected ‘For A Few Dollars More’ before the darker and more progressive ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ (famously then covered by Pat Benatar as the title track for her debut album). ‘Crazy’ was a good song from most recent album ‘Junction 55’, showing he still has plenty to offer.

He then took a stool for a more acoustically driven segment beginning with ‘If You Think You Know How To Love Me’ (also covered by Benatar) which kicked off Smokie’s career a mere 50 years ago, followed by ‘Mexican Girl’. To this point the audience had remained respectably seated (other than one lady who got up for ‘Stumblin’ In’ to the annoyance of those behind her).

But during the flamenco-style ‘Gypsy Queen’, keyboardist Martina Walbeck augmenting the sound with some accordion playing, an increasing number of women got to their feet and filled the aisles and spaces in between, and never sat down again. One of them even sported what looked to be an Angela Merkel-inspired hair and jacket, suitably enough as I wouldn’t mind betting the former German chancellor was a fan.

It was followed by ‘Living Next Door To Alice’, another massive hit casually tossed into the middle of the set, but to my relief, this discerning audience knew to respect the original and not to shout out the Roy Chubby Brown obscenities. ‘Lost In Flight’ was an excellent song that he mentioned he had written for Cynthia Lennon and if a cover of ‘Whisky In The Jar’ was rather unnecessary, ‘Low Life’ was somewhat rockier and very impressive.

I found myself venturing onto the fringe of that dancing section during that classic tale of a Parisian tryst, ‘I’ll Meet You At Midnight’, before the main set concluded with ‘Don’t Play Your Rock’n’Roll To Me’, Chris going to the edge of the crowd to tease with his guitar and spark a singalong.

The encores began with a further pair of Smokie favourites: ‘Wild Wild Angels’ was unfortunately one where his vocals suffered but the Mungo Jerry-like jug band shuffle of ‘Oh Carol’ was great fun. Finally he concluded with a rock and roller in ‘Whisky And Water’, rocking out and pulling enjoyable poses with cowboy-hatted lead guitarist Geoff Carline.

His first London show in ages was an unexpected triumph with a very healthy crowd at the Indigo. I hope it stirs a desire to return as I’d love to see him again, preferably catching the whole show this time and with him back in peak health.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

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