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Concert Review By Paul |
Last night at Knebworth was the first time I have seen Shirley since 1995, and it is the first time I have attended one of these 'picnic' style affairs. I was a bit anxious as to how it was going to work and given some of the reports about the behaviour of members of the audience I was a little on my guard. I needn't have been. The crowd were impeccably behaved and the stewards were also fine. We were very lucky in as much as we decided to eat our picnic in the queue and started as soon as we arrived at 4.15pm. Thank the Lord we did 'cos they opened the gates over and hour early and there were some poor souls who were sitting down to, what seemed like a 5 course meal. They were frantically packing up their tables and chairs as people sailed by leaving them behind in the queue. I admit that I made a mad dash for a good "seat" as I have never gotten closer than 50 rows back at any of the concerts I have been to. We were about 5 rows from the front!!!! A PERFECT spot. The people around us were fantastic, there was no shouting or drunkenness that I was expecting. Champagne corks were popping all over the place.
FINALLY, after about what seemed like HOURS of waiting the orchestra struck up and Shirley glided onto the stage, looking 20 years younger than she is and drowning us all in personality that you thought you might choke on it. I won't go into the song list 'cos you all know what they were but it was fantastic to hear her sing songs live, that I have never heard before; Born To Lose, I'm Still Here, Summertime (surely this is destined to become HER song), A Lot of Livin' to Do, and there must be others but I just cannot remember!!!
I was sitting there listening and realising that this was better than the first time I saw her in 1981 and on a purely vocal level, it was ahead of The Birthday Concert in my opinion. I saw Beau hanging around the back of the stage, and Doug Darnell was in the crowd looking every bit the same as the TV documentary when he was talking about the gowns he has designed. It was all over too soon and was the perfect day in every way. The weather was perfect, the crowd was perfect my food was perfect, the company was perfect (of course) but Shirley was so much more than perfect; she was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I cannot think of the word to use so I shall fall back on the word of Mary Poppins.
As has been said so many times, her voice gets better and better as the years pass. I simply cannot WAIT for the next tour/appearance as I am going to be in the first 5 rows again. I am never going to miss another tour/performance of this Greatest of all artists as I have done in the last 5 years to my shame!!
IT WAS THE PERFECT DAY.
Review about the concert in Knebworth, UK, Jul 28 2001