Deco – Live Review – The Wardrobe, Leeds

By Steve Crabtree, October 2024

A few pre-Covid years ago, my friend Laura and I were minding our own business at Scarborough Open Air Theatre. We were just walking across the venue to get to the far-side bar, prior to seeing Jess Glynne. As we walked past the stage, a young, brightly dressed group had just taken up their positions as support act for the night.

Laura and I had grabbed our beers, and sauntered back towards the standing area of the OAT to find a place to chat, catch up, and sup our beverages.  Well, that was the intention. But we didn’t get to do much chatting, as this support act had started up. And in doing so, they just gripped us.  It was a cool summery evening, and their summer sound made us shut up and take notice.

The band in question? Deco. A band I’d never heard of, but ever since I’ve held a lot of love for.

Now, after seeing them support Culture Club and Nile Rodgers and CHIC twice, it was finally time to see them as headliners on their Destination: I Don’t Know tour. So I was really looking forward to this one, and Laura came along too.

It was also my first-ever gig at The Wardrobe. What a fantastically lovely and intimate place it is.

“Synth-pop disco”

After Elton John classic ‘I’m Still Standing’ had boomed out across the place, Max, Lucy, John, John and Thomas came on stage to a well-received ovation, and went straight into the dreamy ‘Destination: I Don’t Know’ opener from their new album.  As we applauded that, they launched into ‘Temporary’, and that tune was all this Leeds crowd needed to start dancing.

From that point, the synth-pop disco in Leeds was in full swing. We had the whole room moving to songs like ‘Next To You’, ‘Do Ya’ and the sensational viral cover of The Verve song ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’.

This signature sound that Deco is famous for sounded incredible in this venue. I did wonder if it might reverb around the place a bit too much, with it being such a compact and tight place – something I’ve seen happen too many times.  But there was nothing to worry about. Every note, vocal, beat and blow on the sax sounded sumptuous.

“Happy energy”

We were getting a nice share of songs from the new album, along with some of Deco’s older creations. ‘Forever’ was a memorable one. ‘DON’T!’ put a bit of synthesized attitude in to the air. And it was nice to hear the more mellow disco tones of ‘Rescue Me’.  ‘Everybody Wants To Be Someone Else’ was unsurprisingly the biggest tune of the main set, and one of my favourite songs of the night.

What I love about Deco and their music is the happy energy that you get from pretty much every track.  The recorded stuff hits the right notes, and live it goes up a notch. Everything is very close to what you hear on the record, but there are those elements that pop into every tune when they play live that make you enjoy it even more.

In between the tracks, frontman Max chatted with the audience and decided that a Friday night in Leeds is where it’s at. He wasn’t far wrong…there are worse ways to launch the weekend than to dance the evening away to a band who knows how to make you have a good night.

“Entire room jumping”

The three song encore included the banger that is ‘Photograph’. Max stepped off the front of the stage and joined us in the middle of the room for that one. He got us joining in with the “here we are again’s”, and this delighted everyone…although he left Laura hanging as she went in for the high five!

Song of the evening ‘Rain’ closed the show, but not before the entire Wardrobe crowd was involved in the extended singalong. And, not to be outdone by her brother, Lucy climbed off stage to join us on the floor and blow us away with her saxophone.  She got the entire room jumping for one last time, before the band took their bow.

Deco were outstanding. A lovely bunch of people, who create such good music. They were onstage for around one hour and 20 minutes, but the time whizzed by.  We could easily have enjoyed them for a lot longer.

Well played, Deco.  See you in Leeds on a Friday in 2025…

Header image: Steve Crabtree. All other images: Ellisha Iddon