Band Previously Seen: 15/4/14 Village Underground, London
Just the singer and her piano or her guitar (with a couple of songs bolstered by minimalist beats) – and her silver boots with the 4 inch heels. But the almost full (seated) Saint Luke’s was treated to an evening of sophisticated pop/soul and JAPW’s superlative vocals.
This tour is to promote her new triple album (double album plus extra album of BBC live performances) career retrospective, Joanthology. I have been a fan since her 2006 debut Real Life and for me this evening was sheer bliss. She is one of those great unheralded artists who operate just under the mainstream radar – a fantastic singer with a an easily identifiable voice and a great songwriter who is able to blend pop/rock/soul/jazz/r&b into her own inimitable style.
Tonight I generally preferred the guitar numbers to the piano ones. Among the guitar numbers standouts were ‘We Don’t Own It’ (as way of introduction she tells a nice story about the song’s inspiration, Elliot Smith), ‘Flash’, a remarkable cover of Prince’s ‘Kiss’, ‘Tell Me’, and ‘The Magic’ (excellent – see sample video below).
Other songs that stood out in this imperious set were ‘Human Conditon’ (with added crowd interaction), ‘Christobel’, ‘To Be Lonely’, ‘The Ride’ and possibly my favourite song of the night ‘What A World’.
She had a very easy rapport with crowd. She was taken aback that it was July but the city was cold and covered in rain (‘welcome to Glasgow’), made a couple of Elton John comments, and told several stories about the songs, including ‘Real Life’ which wrote after falling in love with someone within 5 minutes of meeting them but who was about to move very far away (‘Did it work?’ ‘No’).
A great evening in the company of a great and very personable singer – what more could you ask for?
