Review: Jimmy Osmond at the King's Hall, Ilkley

THIS concert at King’s Hall in Ilkley last week was exactly what it said on the tin, an evening of hits from the 1970s performed by Jimmy Osmond and his band. Jimmy still holds the record of being the youngest performer to reach Number One in the UK singles charts with his song, “Long Haired Lover from Liverpool” which was the Christmas hit of 1972.

Jimmy was accompanied by a seven-piece band comprising lead guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, saxophone, trumpet and trombone and was joined on stage by Emily Penny, a fine female vocalist as his backing singer/duettist who I had seen perform with him last year in his “Moon River and Me” show which is a tribute to Andy Williams who Jimmy and his brothers worked with for many years.

The show opened with the Earth Wind and Fire song “September” and this set the tone for the rest of the evening with some fine singing by Jimmy and Emily and superb backing from the band who were each dressed in a different coloured suit – pink, red, lime green, purple, yellow and orange which looked absolutely spectacular.

This opening number was followed by “Shake Your Body Down”, “I Want You Back/ABC” compilation, and “Blame it on the Boogie”. Jimmy then spoke about working with Neil Diamond before launching into “Sweet Caroline” with plenty of interaction with the audience and then a solo from Emily of Gloria Gaynor’s massive hit, “I Will Survive”. Jimmy and the rest of the Osmonds worked a lot in Las Vegas and he spoke about his time there which led nicely into a montage of songs from Elvis and Tom Jones who they had worked with. These included “Viva Las Vegas”, “Burning Love”, “It’s Not Unusual” and “Help Yourself”. A quieter number followed – Leo Sayer’s “When I need You” followed by two numbers from close friends of the Osmonds, David Cassidy and David Essex, “I Think I Love You” and “Hold Me Close”. The only song not from the 70s followed, “Save Me” from Jimmy’s recent album and then a virtual duet with Glen Campbell on the large screen on stage with the fabulous “Rhinestone Cowboy”. To conclude the first half Jimmy and Emily performed two Four Seasons songs, “Who Loves You” and “December ’63 – (Oh What a Night)”.

Emily opened the second half of the show with Kiki Dee’s, “I Got the Music in Me”, and then Jimmy reached new heights with The Temptations number, “Get Ready” followed by The Osmonds first hit from 1972, “Down by the Lazy River” and then KC & the Sunshine Band’s numbers, “That’s the Way (I Like It)”.and “Boogie Shoes”. Two Elton John numbers followed, “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” with Emily taking the Kiki Dee part and “Crocodile Rock”. A Bee Gees medley followed – “How Deep is Your Love”, Staying Alive”, Night Fever” and “Tragedy”, the latter having nearly all the audience on their feet and joining in the movements. Emily then performed Abba’s “Dancing Queen” before Jimmy had a series of his own hits and Osmonds hits – “Mother of Mine”, Tweedlee Dee” “One Bad Apple”, Long Haired Lover”, “Yo-Yo”, “The Proud One”, “Having a Party”, “Love Me for a Reason”, “Let Me In” and “Crazy Horses”. The final number of the night, with a picture of all his brothers on the big screen, was inevitably “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”.

The long-sustained applause meant the near capacity audience were treated to an encore which was another classic Earth Wind and Fire song, “Boogie Wonderland”. What a way to finish a great evening of nostalgia for me and the rest of the audience most of whom had their teenage and formative years in the magnificent 1970’s with its superb range of music.

Jimmy has certainly come a long way since that cherubic nine-year-old hit the charts with “Long Haired Lover” and has developed into a great performer. Forty songs in a two-hour period - it was certainly great value for money as far as everyone in the audience was concerned.

by John Burland