Styx plays a mighty and long-awaited majestic show at The London Palladium.

By Robert Corich.

It’s been eight long years since Styx strutted their stuff on a London stage and from the audience reaction I hope they take note and make visits here a more regular occurrence.

A beautiful venue and an elegantly sparse stage augmented with a good old fashioned upper lighting set made this the perfect setting for the mighty Styx’s return to these shores.

The well-balanced set of mid-seventies to early eighties Styx classics were interspersed with some clever additions from their latest (and long-awaited) 2017 studio release, The Mission. All of which went down rather well with the dedicated array of fans in this elegant playhouse. Let’s hope the band make new studio releases a regular event from now on as well. 

Only three tracks from the five pre-Tommy Shaw studio albums were aired: ‘Lady’ penned for the band’s 1972 debut release but issued on the band’s 1973 sophomore album along with ‘Light Up’ and ‘Suite Madame Blue’ from Equinox, their fifth studio offering. This was such a shame as there are some lost gems in the bands early cannon.

Dropping the rather strange, complex and irrelevant (if not irreverent) choice of Bohemian Rhapsody and some of the keyboard tinkerings could have given fans an additional few highly relevant tracks from this wonderful live band. 

The looks of bewilderment between audience members while the rather camp prancing and dancing keyboard antics were underway were not unfounded. It could work, of a fashion, in a bar setting, but it did cheapen an otherwise classic delivery of amazing Styx songs. There is no doubt Gowan is an incredible player and has been a wonderful addition to the skillset of the band, but his silliness loses points. This could have been a 10 out of 10 review!

Nevertheless, all in all, the band, the setting, the songs and the show, delivered over two sets, is still deserving of high praise. A near brilliant show was enhanced by founding member and bassist Chuck Panozzo hitting the stage on the four string for several numbers.

Live Rating: 9.0 out of 10