By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

TRACKLIST: Too Much Music; Do The Television; Voices; I Used To Be In Love; Really Big Deal; Last Man Dancing; 8 Ball; Devil Came Down The Dancefloor; Mess Of Me; Doses; Radio Eyes; Diamonds Don’t Burn

SETLIST: Too Much Music; Really Big Deal; Any Which Way; Meltdown; Do The Television; Voices; Comfortably Numb; I Used To Be In Love; Creep City; Laura; Take Your Mama; Last Man Dancing; I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’; Devil Came Down The Dancefloor; 8 Ball; Destiny; Invisible Light; Filthy/Gorgeous

We’ve recently read Shears’ memoir Boys Keep Swinging and it’s a fascinating insight into the mindset of the former Scissor Sisters’ frontman who has struggled for inspiration.

• Read on for reasons including how Shears invited his audience to his east London home after this gig

We think he’s actually struck a bit of a purple patch and the musical he co-wrote with Elton John and James Graham (Best Of Enemies, Noel Coward Theatre) – Tammy Faye (Almeida Theatre) – won our Best New Musical monsta in 2022.

We heard 5 of the 12 tracks from Shears’ 2nd solo LP Last Man Dancing in the run-up to its release and Too Much Music was a song of the week for us earlier this year. We said: ‘Shears has a new solo album Last Man Dancing released 2 June and this is the 2nd single from it and it’s uptempo and lots of fun.’

One of the most moving aspects of Boys Keep Swinging was the fate of Shears’ lifelong friend Mary – the subject of the Scissor Sisters’ song of the same name – after he funded lifechanging surgery for her.

We can’t help but think some of the songs featured on Last Man Standing may have been intended for but not made Tammy Faye with the discotastic Devil Came Down The Dancefloor with a vocal by Amber Martin seemingly particularly thematically apt.

The title track Last Man Standing also reminds of some of Shears’ best work with Elton John with its 70s falsetto vocals and lyrical reminder of coupling up while clubbing with its: ‘Last call for finding someone, Last call we’ve had so much fun’ hook.

Now living in east London, Shears is having such a good time when we see him in an intimate club on the evening of this album’s release that he jokingly invites the audience back to his around the corner after this gig.

It’s a nice touch and plays perfectly with the party theme of the album but also a theme explored in the book and typified by the album’s title that Shears worries he is simultaneously too much and yet not enough.

Invisible Light with its spoken word narration by Sir Ian McKellen (Mother Goose, Duke Of York’s Theatre) is 1 of our favourite Scissor Sisters’ tracks and receives an airing here.

It’s similar in tone to the frenetic and cinematic close to this album which features Jane Fonda, whose workouts are mentioned in Boys Keep Swinging, on Radio Eyes and even Iggy Pop on Diamonds Don’t Burn. The Kylie duet Voices seems positively restrained in such company.

Next year marks 20 years since the Scissor Sisters’ debut album and this gig also features a sprinkling of some of their most glorious hits.

Nostalgia for their return once at fever pitch for us isn’t quite so strong given the amazing new music and fantastic gigs Shears is now providing.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy Jake Shears Tickets
• Have you seen this or any other Jake Shears or Scissor Sisters’ shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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