Review: Joan Armatrading at Theatre Severn
Me, Myself, I was one of the biggest hits for this three-time Grammy award nominated British singer who first performed in the late 60s.
But last night, Joan Armatrading played at the other end of the spectrum as a packed audience at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury belted out lyrics and waved their arms to old favourites like All the Way from America and Kissin' and a Huggin.
Gary Frost on drums and saxophone, John Giblin on bass and Spencer Cousins on keyboards worked with Joan on her 20th new album, Starlight, performing new tracks such as the eclectic Tell me and funky Single Life which had the crowd nodding their heads in appreciation of Joan's obvious skill on various guitars which could have easily given Santana a run for his money.
Throughout the set, her easygoing nature had the crowd and band laughing and singing with stand out tracks including Woman in Love, Drop the Pilot and I'm not in Love.
Towards the end of the set and breaking from tradition Joan announced: "We won't be leaving the stage and coming back on again, we are just gonna' sing our last three songs now, which ones do you wanna hear?" The crowd cried unanimously: "WILLOW!"
The set ended with the audience singing Joan's lyrics back to her, showing that it's great singing and writing that stands the test of time.
By Maria Bagnall
