Review: One Night Only, The Duchess, York (From Gazette & Herald)

Review: One Night Only, The Duchess, York

11:34am Monday 30th April 2012 in What's on

ONE Night Only – the Helmsley band that have become a global success – played a “homecoming” gig to close their UK tour last Saturday in York.

Being the closest venue to home, they drew a packed audience of family, friends and fans – old and new.

Taking to the Duchess stage to cheers, they launched into Just For Tonight, setting the scene for the adrenalin-packed set.

New single Long Time Coming is not officially released until next week, but thanks to the power of the Internet, and a slickly shot video by Burberry (frontman George Craig has a sideline as a Burberry model), the crowd knew all the words and sang along.

One Night Only have great stage presence. There’s not a lot of chat; they let their music do the talking – with no complaints from the predominantly female audience.

They closed the show with an excellent rendition of Say You Don’t Want It. There was no encore, but following the gig the band came out to mix with their followers – plenty of autographs and photos were given and taken.

What comes next for One Night Only? After their “more poppy than usual” Can You Feel was used for Coca Cola’s marketing campaign worldwide, they are particularly excited at the prospect of playing a massive gig in Sao Paulo, Brazil next month.

Yet while they may be developing into a major UK musical export, they are still a bunch of down-to-earth Yorkshire lads who just enjoy doing what they do.

- Steve Cowell