Review: Joan Armatrading, Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, Wednesday, October 10

by Keith Hunt

Joan Armatrading must like butterflies. She is pictured on her new album wearing a colourful top featuring them and wore another with 12 on in a grey version for her sell-out gig at the Marlowe Theatre on Wednesday.

It could easily be symbolic, as the much-respected singer of great longevity flits about the stage - rather like those graceful winged insects - between guitars, picking at one mounted on a stand.

Now 61, Armatrading has been wowing audiences for decades with her incisive songwriting and guitar skills but amazingly has never had a No1 record. Her most popular song, Love and Affection, made No 10 in 1976.

Still, she manages to pack venues wherever she appears and will, no doubt, do the same when she hits Tunbridge Wells and the O2 in London next month.

Often referred to as St Joan for her unassuming and uncontroversial life, the St Kitts-born performer is very much a minimalist when it comes to chat and, apart from a sprinkling of humour, prefers to let her hugely enjoyable music do the talking.

Her attire is simple, there are no costume changes, no breaks – just 90 minutes of pure entertainment.

She walked onto the stage strumming an acoustic guitar and zipped straight into Down to Zero. After two more numbers she spoke for the first time, asking the audience: “How many of those did you know?” When told two, she retorted: “That’s good, as you won’t know this one either.”

Backed by a tight trio of drums, bass and keyboards, Armatrading floated between ballads, rock, jazz and blues, encouraging a bit of arm waving early on and to join in the chorus later in the show.

She dispersed old and new material including staples such as Drop the Pilot, Show Some Emotion, Me, Myself and I, (I Love It) When You Call Me Names, Weakness In Me, All The Way From America and her tour de force Love and Affection, which received the loudest cheer and most prolonged applause of the evening.

One of my favourites, the lilting Willow - ideal for audience participation - was missing from the list, but that was the only disappointment.

Armatrading jokingly dispensed with the formality of leaving the stage and returning for an encore, telling us: “You’ve been to concerts!” Instead, she tentatively offered that the penultimate song would be an oldie and the finale a new one, Summer Kisses.

“It’s the last track on the CD, so you will recognise it when you buy it,” she teased. With that, the butterfly had flown.

Joan Armatrading performs at Tunbridge Wells' Assembly Hall Theatre on Tuesday, November 20.