The Mike Flowers cops

IS EASY listening the new rock `n' roll? It certainly looked that way on, Saturday night when a capacity crowd of today's trendy young types gave Mr, Mike Flowers and his wonderful Pops a tumultuous welcome for their first ever appearance on the Dublin concert stage. Indeed, Mr. Flowers garnered an audience reaction more suited to a loud rock hero, but he accepted the accolades with his usual professional aplomb, before donning his headphones and, holding his baton in anticipation of an evening of tuneful timeless entertainment.

With his terylene trouser suit and slickly coiffured hair, Mr. Flowers cut a dashing and masterful figure as he conducted the musicians through a trilogy of Bacharach/David tunes, a clever choice given the current vogue among young people for the evergreen compositions of Messrs. Burt and Hal. The lovely ladies of the Sounds Superb Singers provided robust harmonies for I Say A Little Prayer ("a feminist, working class anthem") while the brass, synthesisers and percussion addressed the question, Do You Know The `Way To San Jose'?

Just to prove that easy listening need not be difficult for "hep" kids to get into, Mr Flowers introduced a tune written by that popular Icelandic singing artist, Ms Bjork Gudmundsdottir, entitled Venus As A Boy. "Nice to hear the words for a change," quipped the ever witty Mike. A medley of songs by David Bowie invited us to look again at the legacy of the Thin White Duke, and robust renditions of Ashes To Ashes, Rebel Rebel and TVC15 reminded us that, before he took up a new career as a Gothic drama hyper cyclist, Mr Bowie was once capable of penning a nice, simple, hummable pop tune. Later, Mike and his Pops took us even further back, to New York in the Sixties and the kitschily titled Velvet Underground, a group, incidentally, which had somewhat of an influence on the erstwhile Ziggy Stardust.

A selection of popular tunes from one of the greatest singing stars of the Eighties was no less enjoyable for being less vintage however, we cannot name the artist in question because he has very recently changed his name to a strange looking squiggle.