REVIEW: Paul Heaton, supported by Billy Bragg, at Portsmouth Guildhall

And what a musical treat both served up for a large, lively and appreciative Portsmouth Guildhall crowd on Monday night.

The fact that by the time we went home we had largely forgotten that the headline act was only 50 per cent of what it should have been says much about he quality of the performance we’d witnessed.

It was, of course, supposed to be Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott taking top billing. But a throat condition suffered by Jacqui over the preceding days meant, sadly, she could not perform. Was that going to stop the showing going on? Not on your nelly.

Paul and his band covered her absence brilliantly – with Paul himself and his guitarist, bassist and drummer each pitching in to take up some of the vocals we’d normally have heard Jacqui sing.

Now, I’ve never seen Paul and Jacqui live so I cannot tell how much this Portsmouth set differed from what the duo normally deliver. It is quite possible we had a little more of The Beautiful South and The Housemartins’ back catalogue than we would have done otherwise. But you’d not hear me complaining about hearing some of the timeless classics we did get, and nor did I hear any other such gripes.

Five Get Over Excited was the first dip into the Housemartins’ hit-list and Me And The Farmer was very well-received too. And for South fans, there was what I can only describe as a belting rock’n’roll version of A Little Time which was so different to the original it took me a while to recognise which song it was; and there was Good As Gold, Prettiest Eyes and plenty more from their remarkable array of tunes.

And there was a decent helping of the more recent Paul & Jacqui numbers too – my personal favourite being Too Much For One (Not Enough For Two).

Heaton is a superb frontman – larger than life on that huge Guildhall stage. He strikes the right balance between crowd chat – admitting to telling Portsmouth crowds he prefers the city to Southampton and perhaps telling a Southampton crowd something different; and almost entering panto territory with his run-through of who had who in the band’s World Cup sweepstake – and simply getting on with the songs he knows we all want to hear.

Two encores were reward for the band’s amazing effort in entertaining us without the help of Jacqui, and I’d imagine the fact many of us are still waiting to see what they can do WITH Jacqui out there will be a good excuse to go along next time they’re in town.

But enough of one singing-songwriting legend – what of the other one, Mr Bragg?

He too was in top-class form with his mix of evocative songs and political comment, which, in a time of a cost of living crisis and a mounting number of major strikes, all seemed very timely and relevant.

Like Heaton later, Bragg was also complemented by top-class musicians – including, later in his set, his son Jack, who came out for a wonderful rendition of Waiting For The Great Leap Forward which had been updated with references to Elon Musk and much more besides.

Elsewhere from Bragg we had a swipe at Morrissey, a tribute to Kirsty MacColl, a response to shouted requests for songs with the riposte “You only have to remember the title” – and various musings on what was right and wrong with the world. But the abiding memory of his 50-minute set was simply his obvious talent for writing meaningful songs and for delivering them in his own unique style.

Bragg will be 65 this month, Heaton has just turned 60 (and yes I remember enjoying the work of both of them when they were in their 20s). And by my reckoning that means there’s plenty of years left for both to keep on adding to their bodies of work, and coming back to Portsmouth a few times for more nights like that.