“Holy Hell ‘Fax”, exclaims Nicole Hope Smith, as she takes the stage.
There’s a big crowd in from the start, thanks to the beautiful setting of Halifax’s Piece Hall. Not overawed by their “biggest gig to date”, and a near sell out crowd, the two piece deliver a confident 30 minute set, picking the crowd up from the first drum beat. Emerging to a driving bassline, Eevah set out to warm the crowd up for Duran Duran and delivered a set to match the electrifying colour of Nicole’s bright green dress.
Comprising Hope-Smith on vocals and Embrace guitarist, Richard McNamara they create an accomplished sound from the opening number – Apology – that kicked into gear with a persistent guitar riff.
The energetic, fast paced Take Me To Bed began to seriously grab the crowd’s attention as they bounced along in unison. By the time Hope-Smith pulled out the keytar and took us through a faultless cover of Kate Bush’s current #1 single, Running Up That Hill, the audience were in the palm of their hand. A quick glance around the crowd saw many singing along, filming on their phones and realising that they were seeing an act of real quality opening up, not a couple of musicians here to make up the numbers.
The story of Eevah’s support slot is an interesting one…contacted by Loafers, who said they had a gig for them, they said “sorry, we’re busy” as they had tickets for this very Duran Duran show. It wasn’t until they were asked to open up for the legendary New Romantics that they realised a change of plan may be in order.
New single Out of Focus continued to build the atmosphere before Wild Things rocked the crowd into life again as the band promised to come out to party with the capacity crowd when the headliners hit the stage.
The final number – Promises – though a little slower shows the undeniable quality of Hope-Smith’s vocal and the band leave the stage to the warmest of West Yorkshire ovations.
“Did you ever notice?” Eevah asked in Out of Focus. We definitely did.
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