The Horne Section - Live At The Grand!

Definitely a better choice for Pleasance Grand’s late night comedy/music knees-up than Rich Hall’s hit-and-miss Hoedown last year, The Horne Section—Alex Horne plus a five-piece band and special guests—spreads its wings as a full-blown Edinburgh institution this year. It certainly fulfills that popular Fringe requirement for a loud, boozy giggle and singsong at the end of a day.

Boffin-comic Horne is our amiable, if somewhat backseat host (quite literally – he spends a lot of the show sitting on a couch in the rear). He and his super-talented straight-men musician sidekicks frame the show with a tune that systematically selects a beardy guy in the audience for some VIP treatment, and a spot of easy grandstanding with a medley of sports-related tunes (Final Countdown, Chariots of Fire etc) tied in with the Olympics. 

The guests change from night to night; on this occasion we get guitarist Antonio Forcione performing a flying-fingered instrumental take on Heard It Through The Grapevine, Pappy’s doing quick-fire sketches – including a musical number about gloves and ass-probing – and a well-lubricated Jimeoin out-banding the band with an iPhone app, then slurring through a few comedy songs.

They all go down well, but are trumped by Le Gateau Chocolat singing All By Myself in bone-shaking baritone, then engaging in the nightly Horne Section custom of destroying a ukulele. Watching a massive, hairy-cleavaged black transvestite in a sparkly blue gown smash to bits the tweeist of instruments proves an unexpected tonic.