Gig review: TED POLEY – The Black Heart, London, 29 March 2023

April 12th, 2023 by andynathan

The irrepressible, infectious figure of singer Ted Poley has been a welcome visitor to these shores regularly over the years, both with Danger Danger and also in a variety of other projects such as Bone Machine and Melodica. However he had never before been on a solo acoustic tour, and in doing so bucked the current trend as one of the relatively few American artists to come over to the UK.

On an extensive schedule, the London show was at the Black Heart where contemporaries such as Mike Tramp, Danny Vaughn and Kip Winger have all played acoustic shows in recent years, and there was a much healthier crowd than I had feared.

There could not have been a better matched support act in Rob Wylde, the singer of Midnite City and erstwhile Tigertailz frontman. A set of Midnite City songs began with first album favourites ‘Can’t Wait For the Nights’ and ‘One Step Away’ while the catchy ‘I Don’t Need Another Heartache’? even featured an audience singalong. He also addressed the elephant in the room before anyone else could mention it, that Danger Danger are a major influence on him: indeed, with his star tattoos and blonde hair he even bears a superficial resemblance to Ted.

His voice carried superbly to make the unplugged format work on a mix of songs from their three albums, some rarely played live, not yet anyway. Ending with the ballad ‘If Its Over’ and a signature song in ‘Summer of our Lives’- which always reminds me of Bon Jovi’s ‘Story of My Life’ – it was a set to whet the appetite both for the main act but also a rare Midnite City London date in June at this venue.

Ted Poley opened with a snatch of Cheap Trick’s ‘Hello There’ which gave way to one of those Danger Danger cock rock anthems in ‘Monkey Business’. His voice was still finding his range at this point but ‘Feels Like Love’ was a blissfully melodic slice of AOR, even in this stripped down format.

With a gentleman’s charm, he said this was not so much an opportunity for his fans to see him, as for him to meet and thank us, and explained how lockdown had given him the opportunity to learn guitar to be able to carry off an acoustic show. He was accompanied by a guitarist Declan McKerr who at times used what I assumed was an amp or other technology to make his acoustic guitar solos sound electric.

The funniest moments were as the crowd sang along raucously to the single entendres of Danger Danger’s most salacious moments such as ‘Everybody Wants Some’ and ‘Horny SOB’, while ‘Bang Bang’ had a totally different vibe in this format with a jazzy swing. The set was almost exclusively DD numbers, right up to ‘FU Money’ from their final album ‘Revolve’, presumably on the basis this was what most people wanted to hear, though he did play Tokyo Motor Fist’s ‘Love’ for a fan who had requested some TMF pre show.

There was a communal singalong to ‘I Still Think About You’ before the inevitable ‘Naughty Naughty’, including snatches of ‘Jane’ and ‘Fantasy’ (which after all are essentially the same song!). Then as an encore he wandered through the crowd, mike lead trailing behind him, to sing a cover of ‘Hysteria’ up close and personal, before a whirlwind meet and greet with fans before the venue curfew.

The one gripe was a very short set of an hour in length, though allowances must be made for the fact this is the first time he had ventured out in this format, in contrast to those mentioned earlier. He promised to make a return visit with a full band and that is sure to be a night just as full of fun as this one was.

Review and Photos by Andy Nathan

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