She's Goldsinger! Shirley
Turns a Picnic into a Classy Banquet
From Manchester Evening News, Jul 15 2001
But life can be no picnic and it almost threatened to let Dame Shirley Bassey down when she was hit by a bronchial infection.
Her motto, though, is apparently 'Never cancel' - and the show most definitely had to go on.
"You're my medicine" she told her adoring crowd and the smile that their applause triggered looked a better tonic than her frequent sips of honey and lemon tea.
The ultimate entertainer, Bassey never disappoints, and if her voice was 90% of it's usual strength, no one noticed or cared. For however she felt, she looked fitter than most women a good 10 years younger and her voice never missed a note.
Watching her perform wasn't simply a concert, it was an experience, especially in the spectacular, open air setting of Tatton ark.
In proms-in-the-park extravagance, men in dinner
suits and women in full length gowns ate smoked salmon and enjoyed champagne from crystal glasses under gazebos, while others set up stylish picnic tables nearer the stage with cloths, candelabra and china. For her gay following it was all part of the camped-up glamour that is Shirley Bassey - while for the rest - many of them oblivious to her gay-icon status - it was how a good old fashioned concert should be. After a foot-tapping half-hour from trumpeter Kenny Ball and his jazzmen, a 22-piece orchestra struck up the first few bars of Goldfinger to signal the entrance of the big star.
Any urge to stand up and dance was dampened by diners giving the impression of settling down to an after-dinner movie and shouting sit down as if someone had walked in front of the screen.
Despite being virtually glued to my picnic blanket, Bassey's 90 minute performance was mesmerising.
In a floor-length sparkling silver dress, which showed off her still stunning figure, she flirted with the audience while delivering an emotion fuelled, full throated, dramatic performance of favourites Bigspender and Diamonds are forever as well as ambitiously moulding The Doors' Light My Fire and Beatles Hey Jude to her bold voice.
As always, floral tributes and champagne were heaped on stage from an audience clearly in awe. And Bassey teasingly had them standing up and sitting down between each song of a half hour encore, before finally sweeping off in a surreal silver cape with white fur to the defiant 'I am what I am'.