Dan Reed Network

London 229 Club

A fumbling Reed fails to slam dunk the funk.

It’s 30 years – a long time – since Dan Reed and his Network had their heyday, with hits, critical acclaim and audiences falling at his feet, and a lot has happened to him between then and now. What remains from that golden period, of course, is some great songs. Also that wonderful singing voice. What seems to have taken a bit of a hammering, however, is the unshakable confidence and self-assurance that he once had in spades.

Tonight it’s clear that there’s something amiss with Reed’s ‘performance management’. Sound problems right at the off certainly don’t help. But where before if there was a technical hitch he would have engaged with the audience, tonight he croons the old jazz standard All Of Me and looks unsettled. At one point he asks his band: “What are we doing next?” By

Rainbow Child the band seem to be getting some momentum going, but then it dissipates when Reed invites keyboard player Rob Daiker to the mic to sing one his own songs, then disappears off stage.

With Reed back, a great three-song run of One Last

Time, Get To You and Tiger In A Dress looks to have put things back on track, but then guitarist Brion James comes to the mic to sing Save The World, Reed slips behind the rear-stage curtain, and with him goes the last chance of pulling some kind of victory from the jaws of, frankly, the bizarre.