MUSIC REVIEW: Alison Moyet, Philharmonic Hall

Feb 11 2008 by Peter Grant, Liverpool Daily Post

IT’S been a frantic fortnight for seeing divas here on Merseyside. First Barbara Dickson with her slick mix of the traditional and contemporary.

Then Dionne Warwick, and tomorrow night Gabrielle.

Bonnets off to all at the Phil for bringing us such diversity of talent – including, on Friday night, Alison Moyet, another formidable female singing star.

She is currently on a UK tour to promote her album The Turn.

And what a “turn” , as we Northerners say, she is, as she opened with One More Time.

She effortlessly merges jazz, blues, soul and funk with pure pop and a lot of funny, intimate patter in between.

Alison took the audience on a warm musical journey through her career and made particular reference to her forthcoming reunion tour with Vince Clarke’s Yazoo.

Here, though, it was Alison and band, and if a song wasn’t working she simply ditched it.

She also explained why.

But she quickly replaced them by putting her faultless band into action with another number.

The sexy and sublime That Ole’ Devil Called Love; passionate All Cried Out and a nostalgic, pre-Valentine’s Day curtain-raiser, Love Letters, were all highlights.

It was a show balancing older material from her Alf (her nickname) album to powerful ballads such as Almost Blue.

Only You, a hit for the Flying Pickets, was a song Alison did first and she made sure the audience knew it. Here was a magical, poignant arrangement featuring a melancholy violin solo.

There was also an on-stage reference to Liverpool-based writer Carmel Morgan who was in the aisles along with that other equally affable local literary figure, Sean Duggan.

Carmel wrote Smaller for Alison and Dawn French in the West End and here Alison performed three songs from that musical hit.

And the chart singles kept coming, too, such as the plaintive Whispering Your Name.

The Essex girl returned for two encores with a hard-rocking interpretation of John Lennon’s Come Together and a thumping version of Don’t Go.