Fringe favourite Alex Horne returns with his accomplished band to entertain the late-night crowds, this time in an inflatable cow. Offering music, comedy, weather, but definitely no politics, The Horne Section is a festival institution that doesn’t disappoint.
To a sell-out crowd Horne and his men emerge with our frontman providing instant amusement as his face looms onto the big screen courtesy of the camera attached to his flamboyantly pink trombone. Horne is an extremely cordial host and works the crowd effortlessly well, introducing us to the band and the audience member he will exploit throughout the show. The band soon break into their delightful opening number ‘Chris Hoy Loves A Saveloy’, replete with clever wordplay despite the daft subject matter.
The most impressive aspect of the whole act is the proficiency of the band members, who deftly showcase their skills throughout. These are particularly evident in a section where they play a song from scratch, created out of the audience’s demands. A late-night crowd is often inclined towards the bizarre, but our rendition of ‘We Bang Vicious Nuns’ turned out remarkably well. Later, Horne calls upon a number of the crowd to ‘replace’ members of the band, only to this time discover two of them could actually play their respective instruments, resulting in a brilliant mash-up of ‘I Will Survive’ and ‘I’m Horny’.
During the performance Horne also invites onstage two guest acts that have not rehearsed with the band and so have to largely improvise a set. This is at once potentially the show’s best feature and its biggest flaw. Here, The Festival of the Spoken Nerd conducted a few experiments, unfortunately interrupted by problems with their smoke machine, although they rallied well. The second act, Caroline Rhea, of Sabrina The Teenage Witch fame, was clearly thrown by the band but managed to fit in a number of strong gags and appealed to those in the audience suffering from nineties nostalgia. With the right guests this section undoubtedly flows as seamlessly as the rest of the set, but even slightly shambolic ones won’t detract from the overall mood.
After a slight lull during an uninspiring magic trick, the show ended with a fantastic barnstorming medley of popular romantic songs with slightly twisted lyrics to the delight of the audience. Combining the charm of a Vaudeville variety act with the off-kilter geniality of the frontman’s humour, the Horne Section is an ideal way to round off a day at the Fringe.
