Thirties and forties revivals were going on at various times in 1970s culture,
and Sez Les embraces these old styles and trends, with big band sounds
from the Syd Lawrence Orchestra and Busby Berkley homages from resident dance
troupe Les Girls. This is a welcome development from all of those trad jazz
acts that cluttered up sixties comedy shows, and if anything this edition of Sez
Les is stronger on music than on comedy, with three musical acts - plus the
band and dance routines crammed into 40 minutes. A lot of imagination and craft
has gone into the show.
Daliah Lavi was an unfamiliar name to me, and would also have been so to most
of the original audience. An Israeli actress and model, she also had a popular schlager
singing career in Germany. She's given slightly subtler material to attempt to
win the British public over with, singing a version of 'I'm Leavin'' with much
emphasis on the "La la la la la la la la la la la la la" lines. It's
acceptable enough, but it felt a hell of a lot more distinctive and freighted
with personal meaning when Elvis did it the previous year.
Daliah is wearing an ankle-length canary yellow dress with black trim, and a
rather odd pattern, which from a distance looks like paw prints down her legs.
Mac & Katie Kissoon still have a few years to wait for a UK hit, but 'Hey
You Love' - in which the singers exchange promises of devotion before joining
in a mutual declaration of "Hey! You Love! I'll never let you go!" -
isn't bad (although the scansion of the chorus is distractingly similar to that
of 'Rule Britannia'). Yorkshire Television really go for an innovative staging
here. The singers' backs are to the audience, with the twelve Les Girls dancers
on various platforms behind them, dressed in white bikinis and waving pink and
orange cloaks in time to the music. Some of the audience seem to be much more interested in the girls than the
singers -
Sandie Shaw was a pop veteran by 1972, but still only 25 years old. Her
contract with Pye had just expired and her two very different slots here show
an artist with many new possibilities ahead of her, but uncertain of what
direction to take next. Performing of 'Happy Feet' (a song that goes back to
the twenties) is a bid to demonstrate her versatility. In a sparkly period
turban and scarf, and backed by the Les Girls dancers, the routine requires a
little tap dancing from Sandie. She's game and her character carries
it off, but placing her in front of professional dancers doing the same
actions, does make you aware that movement wasn't where her primary talents
lay.
Her second performance is more what you'd expect from Sandie Shaw. Her
interpretation of Gordon Lightfoot's recent hit 'If You Could Read My Mind' is
very much of a piece with her terrific, lightly melancholic, 1969 album Reviewing
The Situation and makes you wish that she could had carried on in that vein
for a bit longer. Her outfit, however, must have looked unfortunate even at the
time (Les Dawson jokes about her stealing Glenda Jackson's costume from Elizabeth
R), and illustrates just how difficult it is to keep an image evolving in a
long-running pop career without starting to look odd.
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