Let’s Hang On at the Grand Opera House York Review
Let’s Hang On
Grand Opera House, York
8 May 2015
Reviewed by Emma Wasson
Last night I went to see Let’s Hang On hosted at the Grand Opera House, York. The Opera House is always a lovely venue to visit with parking close by at Castle Hill car park and great for its central location in the city. The staff were all very friendly and helpful whilst I was at the Opera House. The bar area was extremely busy when I arrived and everyone had turned out to see Let’s Hang On despite the torrential rain outside. Once inside and dry everyone seemed keen to enjoy the night ahead.
Let’s Hang On is a tribute band to the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, and the band consists of 8 members, Robin Maughan, Dino Buttarazzi, Martin Peat and Jay Harrison as Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, Steve Bland, James Docherty and Philip Drew making up the horn section and Scott Walker on drums.
The evening saw the band swapping between roles and instruments, however Robin remained on lead vocals for the majority of songs. There was a raised step platform towards the back of the stage, which the band used throughout the performance, whilst Scott on drums was seated on an elevated platform so he wasn’t blocked from the audience’s view. A giant screen was suspended at the back of the stage, which was used to show various illustrations linked in to the songs, just to add a little something extra to the performance.
The evening commenced by the whole band joining the stage, singing a rendition of “Let’s Hang On”, immediately followed by short snippets from various hits from Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. This first section was very fast paced and upbeat and gave us an excellent introduction to their music.
Right from the off you knew that the evening was going to be a huge success. As soon as the band came out they brought the stage alive, each band member commanded a real presence on stage, especially Robin. The band also actively encouraged audience participation from the first number urging the audience members to clap along to the songs and join in by singing along. It made the whole evening really enjoyable and it certainly looked like the crowd had a good time last night.
Robin talked about Joe Pesci introducing Bob Gaudio to the band and then subsequently they played “Cry for me” which was a song that Bob wrote for the band just after he joined. This song especially received a huge applause from the crowd, and was performed beautifully by Jay.
During the evening Let’s Hang On also played a few other songs from different artists, including one very famous hit from the Everly Brothers “Let it be me”, which we were told was Frankie’s favourite song. This was performed beautifully and received a huge applause.
The first half also saw the band give an amazing rendition of “Blue Moon” to what they called ‘Du Whopping’, where they stood at the back of the stage and performed with no instruments, just microphones. It highlighted the amazing talents of all the artists on stage and was a joy to listen to.
The second half of the show was incredibly upbeat, this was also demonstrated through numerous outfit changes by the band, as their jackets changed from blue to red, with added sparkle and Robin also donned a complete white suit with matching white shoes. Throughout the lighting team used clever lighting to add that extra sparkle to the performers, and they really jazzed this up during the livelier numbers.
We also saw the guys from the horn section perform much more during the second half, and they are 3 talented guys as they swapped instruments many times, sang backing vocals and performed the all important dance moves of the 1960s.
The second half saw many popular hits being played such as:
“Grease is the word”, “Beggin”, “Working my way back to you babe” “Oh what a night”.
All these classics had the audience swaying and clapping along, with some members of the audience standing in the aisle dancing along to the music. By the time the band’s set came to an end the majority of the audience gave them a standing ovation shouting for them to sing more songs. Of course the band did come back on and we were treated to “Bye Bye Baby goodbye”, and a finale of “Lets Hang On”.
Robin Maughan, lead vocalist has an excellent singing voice in his own right, however his take off of Frankie Valli’s sound is amazing – he has perfected this to a tee. Robin is a born performer and made the evening a huge success. Right from the start he built up an excellent rapport with the crowd, perhaps a little cheesy in places, however he was charming throughout and loved and appreciated by the whole audience. He not only took lead vocals on most songs, but also acted as a narrator and continued to give the crowd snippets of information about Frankie Valli, The Four Seasons and their songs, throughout the whole evening. These little bits of information were just enough to given an insight into the band and their music and it worked perfectly in linking the songs and act together. Robin explained fairly early on that they would be playing a variety of different hits ranging across the decades, which they did, commencing in the 1950s and moving through the different decades throughout the show, there was a real variety of music with something for everyone.
Dino, Martin and Jay were all excellent performers and we were treated to each one taking a more prominent role at various different points throughout the show, which was lovely to see as they are all extremely talented musicians and singers in their own right as well. Last but not least I must mention Scott on the drums who performed to practically every song and has a clear love of the music and did an excellent job all evening.
Overall, what an enjoyable evening it was. It was a pleasure to sit back, clap, sway and sing to Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons classics. Let’s Hang On are an extremely talented group of musicians and singers and have clearly spent a lot of time researching Frankie’s music which shows in the excellent renditions of each song they performed. They delivered a very slick performance from start to finish. It was clear that they all enjoy their jobs and they were a pleasure to watch. Robin was the absolute star of the night and is a born performer, and was a joy to watch.
Rating: 5/5 
Let’s Hang On is currently on tour around the UK. For more information, tour dates or to book tickets at a venue near you visit www.letshangon.co.uk.
For other shows at the Grand Opera House in York visit www.atgtickets.com/york.
Grand Opera House York, Clifford and Cumberland Street, York, YO1 9SW | 0844 8713024
