Why this gig?
Because it’s Alison Moyet. And she’s fabulous.
I’ve seen her as a guest at a couple of gigs over the last few years and it’s apparent that she is still as wonderful as she was thirty years ago. So when she announced this gig, there was no way I wasn’t going to be there.
Support
Someone called Richard Walters. A singer/songwriter. After a few songs he was joined by a friend on a cello. There was nothing particularly bad about what he was playing, but it really didn’t do anything for me.
Headline
I was rather surprised by her band. For some reason I assumed that she would have a pretty standard set of musicians backing her. But there were two musicians – one playing keyboards and occasional guitar and another playing computers and drumboxes and supplying most of the backing vocals. It was a lot like Yazoo. And it worked really well.
I haven’t listened to her new album, The Minutes. In fact I donb’t think I’ve heard anything new by her since the mid-80s. But that didn’t matter. It was all great. I didn’t recognise the first song, but the second one was Yazoo’s “Nobody’s Diary” – which sounded fantastic.
The set was a good mix of new and old. And the old stuff (i.e. the stuff I recognised) was split between Yazoo songs and Alison’s solo hits. To be honest, she played hits that I had forgotten about – I can’t remember the last time I heard “Ordinary Girl” or “Is This Love?”.
The audience clearly loved her. Every song, even the new ones, was greeted like an old friend and the old hits sent the audience wild. And why not? This is, after all, pop music of the highest quality performed by someone with a fantastic voice.
I will definitely be adding her to my list of people to see every time they play in London.
The set list is on Setlist.fm.
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