They say thongs aren't what they used to be...

LIKE Christmas, the annual SCOOTY AND THE SKYHOOKS reunion gig comes just once a year.

Unlike, Christmas, it’s barely over when you want some more.

And that’s throw your underwear on the stage, more.

The night had a feelgood factor cranked to the power of 10 once you add in the school disco excitement of the 30, 40 and 50 something crowd out in their finery to have a great Saturday night.

And the powerful 11-piece band– first an item on the Highland music scene back in 1983 – does its best to shake down the walls of the Ironworks with the power of its four-piece brass machine alone.

Frontman Davie Ross has a great voice for the soul

ska/rock/blues set of classics that is signature Scooty.

And he worked the crowd from start to finish, not even letting up when he stepped sideways into the backing role when new additions Sarah Mackay and Taymar Woodhouse got their deserved chance for solo numbers in the second half.

The female backing beefed up the sound and they added in classy moves – as in the Midnight Hour with their hand-stop signs and watch-checking.

But it wasn’t till the second half that they proved what fine singers they are in their own right. Sarah eased open a belter of a voice on soul classic Rescue Me and on into The Noisettes I’ll Never Forget You, before Taymar treated the crowd to a feisty Nutbush City Limits.

The set was a well worked-out crowd-pleaser including everything from James Brown’s I Feel Good and Marvin Gaye’s I Heard It Through The Grapevine to Van Morrison’s Domino, Otis Redding’s Fa Fa Fa Song and Too Hot To Handle, Blues Brothers classics and Bad Manners’ ska song Walking In The Sunshine, among the long list.

The brass section in particular shone in numbers such as Good Thing, Nutbush City Limits and Alan Hogg’s tenor sax solo in Time’s A Healer.

Walking In The Sunshine, was just one place in the night where you couldn’ help noticing near-perfect sound – and a triumph for a soundman faced with the challenge of balancing up all the instruments and voices.

Davie’s easy banter and constant – needless – questions about whether the crowd was having a good time, ensured the love was in the room.

It was in the band’s one self-penned tune, Time’s A Healer that a pair of blue and white undies came sailing onstage.

And later in the show, Davie revealed with a grin: “Since we got back together for the first reunion in 2009, we’re starting to get a good collection of these things!”

But as well as a growing thong collection, the band must also have a great set of memories.

One of them was shared as the band returned to the stage for an encore.

“This is a song from a band we supported in 1986,” Davie introduced Deacon Blue’s Dignity.

It inspired a singalong that saw the crowd so loud, enthusiastic and tuneful that the Skyhooks should be making a list and checking it twice – for reunion 2012. MC