Marianne was on great form last night, despite having a slight cough. She gets better every time I see her and now has a really excellent 7-piece band. She did a very eclectic mix and pulls all the differing songs off in her own inimitable style. I was dead centre row two and thought I was hearing things when I heard her call slightly off-mike for her "lippy" - but sure enough, her assistant obliged and came rushing on stage with the lippy, which she then proceeded to apply, with commentary, much to the bemusement of the audience! Her version of Sister Morphine is always brilliant - ditto As Tears Go By. And there is many a woman half her age who would do no justice whatsoever to those oh so crude lyrics of Why'd Ya Do It? - but Marianne might even have Mick over a barrel on that score. Great stuff. No photos, though, by request.

Setlist:

Times Square
Dover
Crane Wife
Solitude
Hold On
Broken English
Mack the Knife
In Germany
Crazy Love
Kimbe
Salvation
Ballad of Lucy Jordan
Sister Morphine
As Tears Go By
Why'd Ya Do It?
ENCORE:
Dear God
Sing Me Back
Don't Forget Me (which she dedicated to "Brian's cousin, Chris"??)

Is it Van Morrison's Crazy Love ?

I'd like to hear her tackle more songs like Mack The Knife, in particular the more obscure stuff, a "Mariane Sings Agnes Bernelle" would be interesting.

Thanks Beast. I love to read that you had a good time at Marianne Faithfull's show. I only saw her 2 times, but looking forward to a 3rd show.

-------------------
Keep On Rolling

"Dear God", the XTC song??

Some upcoming dates >
http://www.ticketmaster.com/Marianne-Faithfull-tickets/artist/837610

Quote
Beast
Marianne was on great form last night, despite having a slight cough.

Thats her entire career in a sentence isnt it?

OLDKR

Thanks beast glad ta know your enjoying yaself ...



ROCKMAN

Good review here from the DT, no mention of the lippy though . IORR always has the best reviews, thanks Beast


Marianne Faithfull at the Royal Festival Hall, review
Marianne Faithfull stood alone without any star guests in this appearance at the Royal Festival Hall. Rating * * * *


By Andrew Perry
Published: 5:02PM BST 21 Jul 2009
Marianne Faithfull at the Royal Festival Hall, review
both exhilarating and rather terrifying: Marianne Faithfull Photo: REUTERS

Marianne Faithfull has fought against every role thrust upon her – the bashful schoolgirl who inspired Mick Jagger to write As Tears Go By with Keith Richards, the fallen wild child, the junkie outcast, the ravaged survivor.

It’s the last one that has been the hardest to shake off. When Faithfull began to stretch her voice on a version of Dolly Parton’s Down From Dover, it was hard to think of its rough, parched quality as anything but a signifier of a life lived recklessly. Its range topped-and-tailed by decades of chain smoking, she nevertheless soared towards higher notes with a heedless abandon, which was both exhilarating and rather terrifying.

Since 1979’s Broken English album, however, Faithfull has made the grade as a songwriter herself, and a top-class interpreter of other people’s songs. Drawn from her recent Easy Come, Easy Go double-CD, the early part of her set included disparate covers of songs by US alt-rockers the Decemberists and Duke Ellington (an exquisitely languorous Solitude).

Her seven-piece band, which included four hyperactive multi- instrumentalists, effortlessly rode with the stylistic changes. After Broken English, that album’s bored-with-war title track, climaxed in rock dissonance, they quickly retooled for a Brechtian Weimar vibe (Randy Newman’s In Germany Before the War) and then country-folk (Jackson Frank’s Kimbie). “We go all over the place,” Faithfull noted. On that occasion, she wasn’t kidding.

Sister Morphine, though, was serious business. This was the song she co-wrote with Jagger and Richards, pre-addiction. Its performance was dark, dazzling, a glimpse into the abyss.

As Tears Go By, minted 45 years ago, a childishly simplistic perception of age, was rendered amiably, if awkwardly: Faithfull, like all of us, struggled to re-imagine her 18-year-old self.

South Bank concerts, rather like Faithfull’s recent albums, tend to be littered with star guests, but, even come the encores, there were none here. Even Merle Haggard’s Sing Me Back Home – a duet on the album Easy Come, Easy Go – was here an achingly fatigued solo piece. The implication was: ultimately, defiantly, I stand alone.

Marianne was on fine form and from our second row vantage point the Royal Festival Hall seemed a small and intimate venue which is best suited to Ms Faithfull's style. She has such a unique way of talking to her audience between songs which I love. Just to add to Beast's review with regard the lippy application - one of our group called out "What colour is it?" to which Marianne smiled and hesitatingly replied "It's Chanel" - the shade remains a mystery!

Thanks for the reviews, good to hear you had a good time.

Quote
Manofwealthandtaste
Marianne was on fine form and from our second row vantage point the Royal Festival Hall seemed a small and intimate venue which is best suited to Ms Faithfull's style. She has such a unique way of talking to her audience between songs which I love. Just to add to Beast's review with regard the lippy application - one of our group called out "What colour is it?" to which Marianne smiled and hesitatingly replied "It's Chanel" - the shade remains a mystery!

Except that it's of the bright red variety!

Nanker - Crazy Love is not the Van Morrison one. You can no doubt hear a clip online somewhere.

Was that In Germany Before The War by Randy Newman and Sing Me Back Home, Beast? Impressive song list.

Were Marc Ribot and Jim White playing on stage?

Here's another review. I can only agree with the comment posted at the end by sally k.


Marianne Faithfull at the Festival Hall, SE1
Faithfull, a woman of many contradictory parts, was not always comfortably reconciled in this performance
David Sinclair
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Marianne Faithfull’s status as a fully qualified survivor is confirmed with every year that passes. Yet she has never quite grown out of her role as little girl lost amid the harsh and shallow world of showbiz.

Dressed in tight black trousers, black jacket and a string of pearls knotted carelessly round her neck, she basked for a moment or two in the goodwill radiating from the audience. But it was several numbers before she felt able to relax. “I’m shy,” the 62-year-old grandmother confessed.

“Everyone gets very anxious about me. But it’s going to be fine.” Her biggest problem as a performer was not lack of confidence, so much as the difficulty of finding material that she can claim as her own. On her current album, Easy Come Easy Go, she has combined the vogue for cover versions with that for celebrity duets.


Times Archive, 1969: Marianne Faithfull in coma
The 22-year-old singer and friend of Mick Jagger is dangerously ill in hospital after taking an overdose
'With acting it's got to be you', 1969
Marianne Faithfull live at the Dominion, 1982
The result was a show in which she cast the net too wide for comfort. One minute she was attempting Duke Ellington’s Solitude, a sultry torch song performed after the fashion of Billie Holiday. The next she was navigating a clunky “anthemic” rock chant called Salvation, originally recorded by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Her seven-piece band, led by Kate St John, struggled gamely with the wildly different demands of the arrangements, but did not sound entirely convincing at either extreme. Glancing every so often at the lyrics placed on a lectern to her side, Faithfull used her husky voice to apply plenty of raddled, world-weary emotion to the performance while rather skating over the melodic contours of the songs.

There was no glass of wine or cigarette in her hands, although you got the feeling that neither was far from her thoughts for long. But she did call for an assistant to bring her some red lipstick, which she applied with a flourish. “It’s Chanel, darling. I’m drowning in it,” she said.

The bittersweet Ballad of Lucy Jordan gave way to a suitably nightmarish Sister Morphine, the song to which her voice is best suited. Then the jejune theme of her first hit, As Tears Go By, was followed by a string of earthy obscenities in Why d’ya do It?. Faithfull is a woman of contradictory parts, not always comfortably reconciled in this performance.

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sally k wrote:
Sometimes I wonder whether a reviewer is at the same concert as the one I attended.

There was a great diversity in the songs that Marianne performed but I felt this this underlined how extensive her career has been. As Tears Go By, originally performed by Marianne as a doe eyed "innocent", could not be more different as a song to Sister Morphine or Broken English or some of her recent recordings.

The joy, for me, was watching her perform them as a 62 year old lady who seems to have found a new lease of life and perhaps has far more insight and experience now to be able to really deliver the meanings.

I also must disagree with the reviewer's description of the band. I didn't once sense that they were struggling, in fact I thought they were revelling in the variety of music and delivered whatever the style of the song.

A wonderful evening.
July 22, 2009 10:14 AM BST
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