GLOAMING by Scala & Kolacny Brothers at The Stoller Hall, Manchester, Review

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On the spring equinox, the superlative Scala Choir and the Kolacny Brothers floated into Manchester to perform a show entitled Gloaming (another word for twilight).

I first became aware of Scala & Kolacny Brothers when their version of Creep was used in The Simpsons episode The D'oh-cial Network. I very much hoped they would include this anguished Radiohead classic in the setlist.

The show opened with the choir, dressed in pastel colours, drifting onto the stage of the oak-panelled Stoller Hall. Their heavenly voices merged into a song which seemed familiar but I couldn't quite place. When they got to the chorus it revealed itself to be You Give Love a Bad Name. Surely Bon Jovi could never imagine their rock classic being performed this way, by a Belgian girls choir?



The choir were joined by a drummer, Stephan Noens and by the Kolacny Brothers themselves. Stijn, the conductor and Steven playing the keyboards, He joked about expecting to sell only 15 tickets and how the sunny day in Manchester led him to conclude that the weather was always like this in the city.

The only potential downside of the evening was that the heavenly harmonies and Steven’s arrangements would lull us into a tranquil reverie. This prospect was countered by the way that the girls were sometimes alone on the stage, often bursting out into girl-group dance moves and also by the kaleidoscopic, ever-changing stage lighting.

Most of all though, it was the eclectic nature of the set-list which made the evening so compelling. It covered everything from George Harrison’s Here Comes the Sun to Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen.

One of the best aspects of the two-and-a-half-hour show (including an interview), was them shining a light on songs you’d not heard or ignored before. For me, these included Nightcall by Kavinsky and also on the nocturnal theme, One Direction’s Night Changes.

Their ability to get to the core of a song also refreshed ones made irritating by repeated radio play, including Budapest by George Ezra and Viva La Vida by Coldplay.



It was hard to pick out highlights but I’d certainly choose a scary disco assault on Toxic (Britney Spears). It was as if the cast of Picnic at Hanging Rock had been possessed by the devil, at their school assembly.

The first encore was, wonderfully, Creep with the soaring delivery of the line She’s running out the door and the whispered I wish I was special, pronounced in their precise Belgian accents.

The 29th and final number was Survivor by Destiny's Child, with the choir flourishing lightsabers.

I don’t understand what the show particularly had to do with Gloaming, apart from the extensive use of lighting. It would be good to see them do a narrative, themed sequence, at least for one half of an evening, on a future occasion.

Sadly, the hall was not completely sold out but those of us present made up for it with our enthusiastic applause. I very much hope that Scala & Kolacny Brothers will return, with new songs to sing, even though some of the young choir members there on this night, may be blossoming in new pastures, while younger singers bloom into the stage lights.



The Stoller Hall, Hunts Bank, Manchester M3 1DA
0333 130 0967
For more information about What's On at Stoller Hall click here

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