It is always a special night when Glenn Hughes comes to Wolverhampton, and in recent years KK’s Steel Mill has hosted the Voice of Rock for both his Deep Purple show and during his tenure fronting the Dead Daisies. This time around Glenn returned with a brand new set, The Chosen Years, that truly was career spanning, taking in some of the very best songs he has played a part in over the past fifty-odd years. So alongside the likes of old favourites such as ‘Burn’, the crowd were blown away with choice cuts by Trapeze, Black Country Communion, Hughes/Thrall and selections from Glenn’s 15 solo albums right through to the recently released Chosen. And with this being so close to where his journey began, this was an evening of genuine warmth.

Still accompanied by the formidable Soren Anderson on guitars, Glenn and his band were as tight and hard hitting as you would expect. From the one-two opening punch of ‘Soul Mover’ and ‘Muscle and Blood’, through to the raucous finale of ‘Black Country’ and ‘Burn’, this was a night that more than exceeded expectations. And with the band firing on all cylinders, what more can be said about Glenn’s voice that we haven’t consistently been saying for the past 20 years since Midlands Rocks first appeared on the interweb. He really does still deliver the goods night after night, and even though he recently celebrated his 74th birthday, there is no disputing he remains in terrific form.

‘One Last Soul’ took us back to Black Country Communion, and a reminder that although BCC have never been able to tour extensively, they really do have some marvellous songs in their catalogue. Of course, Glenn’s career started out in these parts with the legendary Trapeze, and ‘Medusa’ and ‘You are the Music’ revisited the early 70’s and that signature blend of soul and funk with hard rock. One of the genuine surprises of the night was with ‘Grace’, taken from 2005 album Fused, one of Glenn’s occasional collaborations with Tony Iommi. Whenever the two have crossed paths, the results have always been impressive and we can only hope for more from them in the future.

As the show moved to its conclusion, with ‘Stay Free’ and an acoustic version of ‘Coast to Coast’ leading into the encore, it was clear what a wide and varied catalogue Glenn has been a part of. And, of course, it was not just the music that was the highlight; Glenn remains an engaging frontman, and shared entertaining anecdotes from throughout his career with a tip of the hat some of his former bandmates and collaborators. Support act Sophie Lloyd was welcomed back for the closing ‘Burn’, and we can only hope it won’t be too long before Glenn returns to KK’s for another night of pure magic.

Set list:-

Soul Mover
Muscle and Blood
Voice in my Head
One Last Soul
Can’t Stop the Flood
First Step of Love
You Kill Me
Into the Fade
Way Back to the Bone
Medusa
Grace
Chosen
You Are the Music
Stay Free
Coast to Coast
Black Country
Burn