Shalamar – Live Review – The Picturedrome, Holmfirth

By @Steve Crabtree, August 2019

A Friday evening in Holmfirth has quite a reputation for being one of the best nights out around. But throw soulful funk group Shalamar in to the mix, and something special happens.

With Howard Hewett and Jeffrey Daniel, the group sold over 25 million records worldwide in their pomp. And those two, now joined by Carolyn Griffey continue to wow audiences, and get people moving to their all-time hits.

“Grooving”

With an excited crowd, Shalamar entered the stage at 9pm with ‘Right In The Socket’. Straight away the mood was set. The audience were moving, the band were grooving and for rhyming sake, we had a few tunes that were more soothing too…

But with Shalamar, it’s all about the funk, and they still slam down the disco like no-one else. My favourite song by the trio, ‘Make That Move‘ made the set fairly early on, as did ‘Friends’.  And it was pretty clear that Holmfirth houses a lot of Shalamar fans, singing every word and not missing a beat with the moves.

Shalamar’s constant movement on stage never changes either. Their syncro-dance, led by the rhythm of Jeffrey Daniel are there from start to finish.  And Daniel, now a sprightly, energetic 64 years of age pulled the moonwalk out about three quarters of the way through the show. His greatest invention. And the crowd loved it. “Go Jeffrey, Go Jeffrey…” came the cries.  And seeing it in person is quite something to see.

“Dancing out of their hands”

Shalamar are a group I’ve seen a few times. A couple of times during 80s festivals, and once before in their own headline show. They’ve got a sound that I’m a bit addicted to, and a bassline that I can’t get enough of. Seeing them in the intimacy of the Picturedrome brought all that closer too. A small, but awesome venue, with a brilliant sound quality. And of course, brilliant music from a brilliant group.

‘Sweeter As The Days Go By’ sounded as good as it always has, and ‘There It Is’ was a huge pleaser. ‘For The Lover In You’ slowed things down a touch, and it was a show full of hits from the last 40 years.

But Shalamar always had us eating… no, dancing out of their hands. ‘Take That To The Bank’ brought us back in to that dance zone. And ‘I Can Make You Feel Good’ did make us all feel good, just as promised.

“The Picturedrome and Shalamar mix together well”

It was a gig that was over far too quickly.  Shalamar come from an era where pop songs had to be good to chart and sell records. It’s why what they do still sounds so good today, and will never date.

The Picturedrome and Shalamar mix together well.  Everyone who left the building was on a high.  We’d all had a night to…. you know the rest.