Alison Moyet Newcastle City Hall 1984
Alison Moyet is one of our best soul/R&B singers. Her voice has great range, and a soulful, bluesy feel. I have seen her live four times; once with Yazoo (I will write about that concert when I eventually get to covering the letter “Y” which still seems a long way off right now), at the Sage a few years ago in a concert with Michel Legrand (I have already written about that gig), at Live Aid, and on her first solo tour in 1984 in a concert at Newcastle City Hall. At the time of the 1984 tour Alison had just released her first solo album “Alf” which contains the great singles “All Cried Out” and “Love Resurrection”. The album and those singles were the first signs that Alison was more than just a pop singer, and her strong soul and R&B voice were really starting to emerge. The programme tells us that she was influenced by Janis Joplin, and you could see this side of her starting to come through. 
She is of course still successful 30 years later. In those years she has sung many different song, in many different styles. Alison said at the time (from the programme): “Oh, I don’t see myself as a great singer…I’d just like to see myself as an all-rounder. I couldn’t stand just to do one style. I want to do it all. One day I’m going to shock everyone and do a Jack the Lad song. [? strange choice :)] I don’t see any necessity to limit yourself to one thing at all. I’d just get frustrated. Variety’s the spice of life and all that and I believe I can sing anything. If I sang folk you’d think I’d come right out of that period. If I sang jazz you’d think I’d been brought up on that. If I sang r’n’b you’d think I’d lived with that all my life. I just adapt well. I just think that whatever you sing you’ve got to really believe it. If I’m singing a song I can make myself feel really sad….I can make myself cry by singing.” Support for the 1984 tour came from Person to Person.
26 Nov
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