Ms Armatrading In Concert

Rip It Up, Issue 13, 1 July 1978, Page 10

Ms Armatrading In Concert

Francis Stark

Reaction to Joan Armatrading’s Auckland concert, both in the Town Hall itself and in the press, was unreservedly favourable. Admittedly, she had the biggest head-start from her audience that I have seen for any performer, but it still takes a great performance to live up to the kind of expectations that this crowd obviously had. That she carried it off so well in the circumstances is a tribute to her own capabilities, because the band she used, apparently drawn from the middle ranks of the British session fraternity, did not manage to bring the same sparkle to her songs as the players on her albums. Instead, Armatrading was obliged to provide most of the drive and energy with her singing and guitar work. Guitarist Bill Hamm seemed especially out of place with his jazz fusion stylings in arrangements originally built around Jerry Donahue’s tasteful interjections. Generally, the band was competent enough, but it is a shame that the costs of touring this part of the world are starting to decree that artists bring a rather cheaper band than they would dare to step on stage with in Britain. Leo Sayer appeared here last month with a collection which was by all accounts less than he deserved, and Armatrading had to put a lot of work in to bring the best out of her musicians. All this effort was masked behind a studied air of unconcern, mind you, a good example of how to hold the audience’s attention with anti-stardom. The between-song introductions and anecdotes all came with a convincing amount of diffidence, and it was hard not to believe that they were spontaneous. The show never lagged, even though there were much longer gaps between songs than might normally be considered usual for a well-paced show. Right from the beginning, she scored well with her audience of fans by opening with ‘Down to Zero’, and following it one song later with 'Show Some Emotion’. The strength of the songs, and of her singing, immediately reassured the audience. As the show went on, taking in large parts of the Joan Armatrading album, and almost all of Show Some Emotion, they gave more to the performer than any Auckland crowd I have ever seen. It is probably

more than coincidence that they were also the first Town Hall crowd I have seen with a majority of women in it. Although she denies any particular links with feminist groups, Armatrading is obviously aware of the amount of support she gets from that sector, and is prepared to acknowledge it on stage. In a long introduction she told a story of how she repulsed the unwanted attentions of a male admirer to the obvious delight of much of the audience. I don’t know if supporting artist John Hanlon is not so aware of the inclinations of Armatrading’s audience, or whether he is just bloody-minded, but he took his life in both hands when chatting amiably about having his ‘lady’ wash his dishes after him. He was greeted with the inevitable hisses. In fact, that was the strongest reaction he garnered from a set which had some interest added to it by the cocktail-lounge piano of fellow ad-man Mike Harvey. Like Lea Maalfrid’s recent stint as an opening act, their performance proved that New Zealanders don’t lack for musicianship, but rather urgency and confidence. Armatrading showed what that kind of aggression can do for a show. By the time she finished tier set with “Kissing and Huggin”, she had worked the band up to full steam, and the audience to fever pitch and the demand for an encore was tremendous. I even had one neighbour sobbing at the thought that it might be all over. When Armatrading came back alone to play “Peace In Mind” at the piano, you could feel the relief run through the crowd, and the feeling peaked in another roar after “Back To The Night”. Eventually, she reemerged to finish with a rousing work-out on "Never Is Too Late", with the band slotting surprisingly well into its reggae setting. Reportedly, a huge proportion of overseas acts that play Auckland use stories of the sterile audiences here to frighten their children. Auckland crowds are in danger of being labelled plain indifferent, but the general casting off of the big city sang froid for Joan Armatrading gives the lie to those who would maintain that the condition was incurable. All it takes is a touch of genius.