Review: A Celebration of the legend Barry White: Princess Theatre, Hunstanton

A great Friday night at the Princess Theatre as William Hicks brought his tribute show to Barry White.

Hicks, from Georgia, USA, not only looked the part, he definitely sounded it in a highly-polished show.

All the hits and more were there,You're My First, the Last, My Everything, Just The Way You Are, Let The Music Play, Never, Never Gonna Give You Up, You See The Trouble With Me and It's Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me.

There were some astute choices to add to the content with hits from Bill Withers and Lou Rawls.

Hicks, at least on this occasion, was slightly more gravelly-voiced than the famously smooth-throated White, but what he got brilliantly was the perfect phrasing the singer brought to the songs.

White's loss in 2003 robbed us of a great popular music talent. Often regarded as something of figure of fun over here, he was in fact very much the man who laid the basis for the RnB stars of today and I think his vocal stylising also had quite an influence on hip-hop.

By the end nearly everybody in the packed theatre was up and dancing and absolutely loving it. Hicks was ably assisted not only by his three-piece band but also by his excellent backing singers the Supreme Dreamgirls, who did a highly-impressive set of their own to warm up the audience with everything from Motown classics to Amy Whitehouse.

Mark Leslie