Gig review: Judy Collins @ The Stanley Theatre, Mountford Hall
Saturday 4th June 2011
Having been the fortunate winner of tickets for this event via the Liverpool Acoustic website, (I had correctly named Judy’s new album as ‘Paradise’ in an on-line competition organised by the Liverpool Acoustic webmaster Graham Holland), my wife Angela and I had mixed feelings as the day of the concert approached. Angela had limited knowledge of Judy and didn’t know her music. I was delighted to have won and was eagerly awaiting the concert date – Saturday 4th June.
On arrival, being confronted at the door by two burly bouncers was a shock. They were searching for ‘own drink’ carrying punters. No welcoming smiles or – “How are you”? “Welcome, good to see you” comments. We were immediately on our guard and I got the feeling that we were entering a football stadium.
The venue is a hall with no windows, small bar at the back and a high stage. It is, shall we say ‘well used’ and in need of refurbishment. There were about 60 audience present initially with half an hour to go before concert start time. The room was very dark and the stage set with a grand piano and guitar situated behind a single microphone.
Judy’s support act for her tour was a female singer/songwriter who was confident on guitar but who for us did not ‘cook the mustard’. “Better to listen to than look at” said the chap next to me at the end of her set, the interval. I think he meant her constant moving around away from the microphone was distracting. It really was and I wasn’t fussed on her material either. Why do singer/songwriters hardly ever do a cover or two in order to add light and shade?
However, Judy entered the stage to rapturous applause from her 200 or so fans as she launched into a throat clearing opening number and, after a brief story about how it all started for her at Greenwich Village, New York, she sang Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both sides now’. The Beatles song ‘In my life’ was just beautiful and it instantly won over the Scousers in the audience. It was clear that this was going to be a concert to remember as my Angela was already smiling. Judy’s voice is just superb and her vocal range astounding.
When relating the story of her musical development Judy has a penchant for giving short a cappella versions of songs and at this stage she sang Stan Kelly’s ‘Liverpool Lullaby’, ‘I didn’t know the gun was loaded’, ‘Amazing Grace’ and Woody Guthrie’s ‘This land is your land’. Her father ran a radio station for 30 years playing songs like, ‘I’ll take you home again Kathleen’, ‘Danny Boy’, ‘I’ll be seeing you’, ‘The Kerry Dancers. At the end of the latter song Judy held the very high final note on for 16 seconds. Not bad for a 71 year old.
Joan Baez’s ‘Diamonds and Rust’ is a favourite of mine and she did a great job with this. The classic Sandy Denny song ‘Who knows where the time goes’? then followed. Understandably the applause at the end of this song was lengthy. My research tells me that Judy greatly enhanced Denny’s international exposure by recording this classic track.
More stories of Greenwich Village followed and she quipped that when joining the clan with people like Joni Mitchell and Rambling Jack Elliott she was booked in for therapy ‘on arrival’. Not so, I am sure. 1964 saw Judy meeting for the first time Bob Dylan when unexpectedly hearing the strains of Mr Tambourine Man at a venue she was at. She stayed to watch the full two hour concert. In 1966 Leonard Cohen was another who introduced himself to her stating he was a songwriter who couldn’t sing or play guitar. What do you think of that statement? A short a cappella rendition of ‘Suzanne takes you down to the river’ followed from Judy.
The concert had now been going for an hour and at no time had she taken a seat. I wondered when she would and by coincidence at this point she moved across to the grand piano. This was the only tedious part of the concert for me as Judy proceeded to sing what sounded like an opera about her parents, the title of which I did not catch. The unfortunate thing about this was that it lasted 14 minutes without pause or stopping. She is a very talented pianist though, classically trained I understand.
Her penultimate song followed as Judy returned to the microphone without guitar to sing Stephen Sondheim’s classic ‘Send in the Clowns’. This brought a standing ovation from the audience with Judy returning on stage to sing ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’, the first track on her new CD ‘Paradise’. By this time I am sure all Judy’s fans were literally ‘in paradise’.
Angela and I thoroughly enjoyed Judy and will be looking closely at her website in anticipation for details of her next tour in the UK. Many thanks to Liverpool Acoustic for ‘picking me out of the hat’. I really was a very fortunate winner.
© 2011 John Owen