| One night only
For one night and one night only Paris witnessed something magical on her stage. The night was Monday and the magic was the arrival of Annie Lennox’s solo tour at the Grande Rex, Paris.
Travelling from London to Paris to see the show felt like a secret rendezvous. For the past few weeks London has been festooned with posters advertising the coming of the new album. In Paris there was nothing to be seen except posters of Madonna’s new offering which the Parisians seemed to take great delight in ignoring. The lack of visible promotion for Annie made arriving at the Grande Rex feel like attending a secret date at a hidden club and it later proved to be the perfect setting for the performance of ‘No More ‘I Love You’s’’ (remember the video? set in a Toulouse-Lautrec like brothel). The crowd was mainly French, with a few Americans who were lucky enough to be on the right side of the Atlantic at the right time, oh and British me. There was a real buzz in the air prior to the show but as the lights dimmed and the music to ‘Money Can’t Buy It’ started the atmosphere became electric.
From the moment that Annie appeared and throughout the concert there seemed to be a deliberate evolution in her appearance. Come ‘1000 Beautiful Things’ and the tea-cosy hat, glasses and black jacket were discarded to reveal her beautiful features, the famous shorn white hair and a glittering silver top before she stripped again and framed herself solely in black until the last song ‘Why’ where she emerged wearing an exquisitely fitted dark silver coat, the type of cut she has made her own. As I heard one person comment ‘it was as if she became more beautiful’.
Her presence on stage was all commanding. The voice sounded as amazing as always; if anything her delivery sounded more honed than ever as she played with the notes of her songs in a new way. She looked and moved like a woman in her late twenties rather than a woman facing fifty. Yet she appeared an enigmatic contradiction, one moment crouching down and pulling the microphone backwards before roaring forwards again at the crowd like a tiger during ‘Would I Lie to You’ the next moment appearing so sweet standing in shock with her hands to her face peeping over her fingers tips in disbelief at the tremendous reaction of the crowd as they brought the roof down with standing ovation after standing ovation.
Sitting at the piano she spoke in perfect French yet laughed at her abilities with the language. She then broke into English and said ‘Anyone who went to Eurythmics’s concerts may remember this one’ the crowd roared in acknowledgement to which she replied with a smile ‘You were there!’ she then opened ‘Here Comes the Rain Again’ to everyone’s delight.
Though every song was a genuine real pleasure to hear, some that stick in my memory are ‘Don’t Let it Bring You Down’ which was a nice surprise to see live; a refreshing rendition of ‘Walking on Broken Glass’ which was performed to a shimmering back drop of exploding pink and blue specs of light; a deliciously funky ‘Bitter Pill’; and a wonderful musical arrangement and vocal performance of ‘Pavement Cracks’; while for ‘I Need a Man’ she worked the song, the crowd and not to mention herself into a crescendo then shouted ‘Sing it!’ and threw her microphone into the audience before strutting off stage to the roar of the full house.
I returned home to London and realised that Annie’s performance in Paris had proved that you don’t need expensive effects or dozens of dancers or corporate sponsorship to put on a once in a lifetime show, all you need is soul (and maybe a bit of Annie Lennox magic)! Whether you have tickets to see her in London or not (like me) we know the album is coming soon and besides, ‘It’s alright, Annie’s coming home and we don’t really care where she’s been.’ (Neil Dunlop Millen, AnnieLennox.de) |
