Gladys Knight, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Jonathan Geddes
Three stars
It's testament to how highly Gladys Knight is regarded that her first UK show in six years began with a standing ovation. It may have come under the Jazz Festival banner, but this was vintage soul all the way, with particular emphasis on her gospel roots, including a closing religious medley.
Knight herself is a spry 71, and she moved around with considerable elan, stagecraft suitably polished over the years. There was no reliance on anything flashy either, save for her glamorous dress and some decorative candles, and this was an evening purely about the music.
In truth, though, not every song carried over as well as it could have. This was partly the flaw of her backing band being crushingly loud at times, meaning Knight's vocal was sometimes buried, with Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me particularly submerged. A clearer presentation of her voice was often required, instead of a battle against the noise, while it was obvious that her fine quartet of backing singers were also pushing some of the songs forward , and a version of I'll Be There in tribute to Michael Jackson proved an awkward fit.
Yet the soulful sweep of a vocal was still there, and it rose to the fore in places, with underrated Bond theme Licence To Kill and a raucous I've Got To Use My Imagination vivid numbers. The Way We Were was delivered gracefully, but it was her older brother, and former Pip, Bubba Knight, bounding on that provided an extra lift. Their couple of numbers possessed a joyful sense of fun, including a cover of Happy that succeeded through sheer gusto, infectiously linking vintage and modern pop together.
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