For the last couple of years, the name of the British Pop sensation Prefab Sprout has returned suddenly on everyone's mind, thanks to the fact that Martin McAloon, the band's bass player, decided to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the British band's most celebrated album called Steve McQueen in 2025, by embarking a Live Tour called Steve McQueen - Slight Return, who saw McAloon performing a solo acoustic Tour around the whole of UK performing not only the Steve McQueen album in full, but also a great number of hits, released by the band between their 1984 debut album Swoon and the 2001 The Gunman And Other Stories album, the latter being the last record that saw McAloon's last appearance as a full-time Prefab Sprout band member.
The 2025 Tour proved to be a great success for the talented English bass player, so much so that he decided to extend the Tour throughout the whole of 2026 too.
Bluebird Reviews caught up with one of McAloon's Tour dates in the Southeast of the United Kingdom, at the enchanting The Haymarket theatre in the town of Basingstoke, where McAloon, with the sole company of 6 guitars on stage, took the whole crowd to a fascinating and enthralling journey into the history of Prefab Sprout, taking the challenging responsibility of playing and singing at the same time, a big ask for McAloon, given the fact that the singing and songwriting duties within Prefab Sprout were solely and historically dealt by McAloon's brother Paddy, who in recent years has become increasingly reclusive, sadly, due to health-related issues.
Still, the work on stage made by McAloon at The Haymarket was not short of extraordinary; not only Martin McAloon had to arrange all the 27 songs in a way that could fit his vocal skills, but he was also able to come up with some acoustic musical arrangements of remarkable originality, particularly on songs like Desire As, Life Of Surprises and Electric Guitars, among others.
McAloon performed, in over 1 hour and 45 minutes, 2 sets very diverse in terms of song selection, but equally exciting due to the surprising choice of Prefab Sprout songs brought on stage by the enormously talented and affable British musician.
Where in the first set McAloon performed the majority of numbers from the famous Steve McQueen album, leaving aside only the most famous singles off the album for the second set of the evening, it was extraordinary to hear live songs that have been performed live just a bunch of times, or sometimes never at all, like Cowboy Dreams (from the 2001 The Gunman And Other Stories album), Cue Fanfare, from the band's debut album called Swoon and particularly Electric Guitars, the only extract from that highly inspired record called Andromeda Heights (1997).
McAloon, despite a little cold that forced him to dry his nose from time to time on stage (for which he profusely apologised), didn't show any side of vocal or musical weakness at all, throughout the 2 fabulous sets he performed, taking only a short 15-minute break between the two sets in an evening that was going to reserve, unbeknown to the fans, even more incredible surprises as the show went on.
For the 2nd set, McAloon decided to start decisively on the "Hits Accelerator", stringing together a breathtaking series of the Sprout's most famous songs, which included Carnival 2000, Hallelujah, Cruel and The Sound Of Crying, rising the emotional level of the evening to a higher level by adding to the setlist a fabulous version of the song Dublin, from the band's Protest Songs album of 1989, plus a very unexpected (with still work in progress to be made to it, according to McAloon's himself) version of I'm A Troubled Man, from their 2001 album The Gunman And Other Stories.
The Prefab Sprout's bass player is clearly enjoying himself, on stage and takes the opportunity to ask the crowd whether they wish to hear songs he hadn't included on his setlist, an invite to which the Basingstoke crowd doesn't hesitate to jump on board. And just by magic, McAloon gets asked whether he can perform songs like Nancy (Let Your Hair Down For Me), Hey Manhattan! And We Let the Stars Go, to which McAloon duly oblige, playing and singing said songs like a long time consummate singer, despite admitting, several times, that singing is not his personal forte, although tonight's crowd doesn't seem to be spotting this aspect at all.
In an exciting rollercoaster leading to the end of the show, McAloon performs beautifully the remaining hits from the Steve McQueen album, until reaching a crowd-participation pulsating finale, where the numerous fans present here tonight at The Haymarket join McAloon on the choruses of hits like Cars And Girls and The King Of Rock'N'Roll, which closes a truly brilliant performance.
To hear Prefab Sprout's songs in an acoustic fashion was a monumental task for this brilliant musician, a task that McAloon embraced and executed in great fashion, originality and style. He might have been alone on stage, at The Haymarket, but the British bass guitar and guitar player brought back the magic of a band that had a triumphant career across three decades in a breathtaking and inspired way, all on his own. High praises indeed for that magnificent musician that is Martin McAloon.
Concert Setlist:
Set 1
Faron Young
Cowboy Dreams
Moving The River
Cue Fanfare
Horsin' Around
Desire As
Electric Guitars
Looking For Atlantis
Johnny Johnny
Blueberry Pies
When The Angels
Set 2:
Carnival 2000
Hallelujah
Cruel
Dublin
The Sound Of Crying
I'm A Troubled Man
When Love Breaks Down
Hey Manhattan!
Nancy (Let Your Hair Down For Me)
We Let The Stars Go
The Golden Calf
Life Of Surprises
Bonny
Appetite
Cars And Girls
The King Of Rock'N'Roll
