Dinner was a little late finishing. It was only over the road from the Palladium, but still, Dim Sum doesn't involve an awful lot of complex cooking time, so it was a little surprising it took as long as it did. In the end it was a bit of a rush up to the front doors of the theatre. There was a small group of stragglers there, but we were hurried through by the ushers: up the stairs and round to the Royal Circle. As we were finding our seats, the musicians began to come on stage. I sat down and noticed a shabbily dressed woman wearing dark jeans, a sweatshirt and clogs with a pronounced limp heading towards the microphone. My first impression was that it might be a char lady or a differently-abled technical person doing last-moment adjustments. But I was wrong. A spotlight appeared: it was Dionne Warwick.
Yesterday I took a little time to read Dionne's Wikipedia page, always a good thing to do before going to see one of these all-time great divas. It reads as a checkered but interesting history and in fact the linear nature of that history mirrored the concert. Dionne took us through her life from the very beginning all the way through, using songs as the markers. For a performer of a certain vintage, it's an obvious way to explain your life and it worked well. However, it was not all straightforward. To begin with, she seemed to differentiate between two personalities in her life: Marie (her original first name which seemed to be her 'private life' persona) and Dionne (her 'on stage' performing persona). This was then taken a stage further when throughout the telling of the tale, she referred to herself only in the third person, much in the way that I have described Dionne in this paragraph. It was all a little unnerving, and this all before she had issued a note. I was concerned: had we paid to see a total dingbat? And could she even sing?
I needn't have worried. One sort of settled into the narrative, almost as though it was someone else reading a biography, and when the songs started coming, there were no disappointments. Admittedly, Don't make me over was a little croaky to begin with, but her voice warmed up through the long first half of the show and just got better and better. Obviously when you see a singer live, it's always the soundtrack of your life with breath behind, but this experience was literally just like hearing the radio come to life. The rendition was so faithful and dead on it was a wonder to see a real person issuing forth the words. Without gushing too much, the highlights were hearing the Bacharach and David songbook sung by the voice they wrote them for. The medley of I say a little prayer (performed by the woman who sang it first) and Do you know the way to San José were breathtaking. Don't make me over, I'll never fall in love again, There's always something there to remind me, All the love in the world. One after another, they shimmied out, songs she must have performed a hundred times before. A very special moment came when she sang The look of love, also made famous by Dusty Springfield. We thought afterwards: Dionne just keeps on going, but who's singing Dusty's songs these days?*
But this, below, was the one that got me.
Dionne Warwick I'll never love this way again (Live in San Remo, 1980)
Shame about the Status Quo drum kit
*this is the answer, I was reminded today
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