EDINBURGH - QUEENS HALL - 06.02.08
(Edinburgh Evening News - 6th February, 2008)
A bell rang to signify the end of the interval. Continuing to ring, it quickly became apparent that this was not a terse alarm to hurry people to finish their beverages but was actually a genuine fire alarm that saw all of last night's occupants of the Queens Hall standing outside nursing their drinks.
Eventually returning to the stage when the all-clear had been given, without missing a beat the headline act sat at her piano and almost as an aside laughed: "Well, don't say that a Barbara Dickson concert isn't exciting."
The singer explained that she thought it might have been her smoke machine that had caused the alarms to go off, but then she shrugged and said: "We got to see the firemen, so we were very happy."
This laid-back attitude was part of what made her long overdue return to the Capital an absolute joy to be a part of.
A concert that was split in two acts with little fanfare, Dickson held the attention of everyone in the venue seemingly without effort.
Dressed entirely in black (changing to a coat and tails after the mini fire drama) she walked on stage, picked up a guitar and opened her set with Goin' Back. Previously a hit for Dusty Springfield the track is now part of Dickson's huge repertoire, appearing on her 25th studio album Time and Tide.
Backed by a five-piece band, she informed the audience that a number of the tracks she was performing were part of a list of things she'd wanted to do for 30 years. There was no doubt that she did them justice.
Something that is often lacking in performers is the bond that can so easily be made by the cheekiest of banter between songs.
With Dickson everything told a story – who had originally written the number, why she had recorded it and sometimes where she had first performed it.
Such simple statements, yet it made the audience understand, know and arguably enjoy it more.
Not that the crowd needed much persuasion, albeit in their pacified manner. This was a crowd that appreciated a good voice with absolutely no fuss, that remained almost entirely still except for applause between songs and when Dickson referred to a particular project that she had been involved in.
Even the first-aiders were giving her their full attention.
There were songs from her last album of Beatles covers as well as some numbers which veered on the side of folk with a pop twist and a couple of her 70s hits.
When talking about Answer Me, the Dunfermline born singer commented that "I think only dogs can hear that top note", but she was of course doing herself a massive injustice.
"This is a song from Chess," she eventually announced to gasps from certain members of the audience. I Know Him So Well – along with numbers from Evita and Blood Brothers – may have been the biggest hits she sang, but you certainly wouldn't have thought it, with every seemingly effortlessly performed song being a winner and the fans leaving more than happy, despite their brief excursion into the cold.
(Darren Scott)
