Friday, November 02, 2012

Amy Macdonald at the Lowry - superb



We went to see Amy Macdonald at the Lowry last week. I thought she was pretty amazing. I think I saw her on Jools Holland first of all and just thought, what a voice, what well crafted songs and what a lovely girl  - I bet her parents are so proud of her. I know, such a Dad thing to say.

But the set she did was perfectly constructed. New, old, stripped down acoustic versions, signature hits, even a brilliant cover of Jackie Wilson's Your Love Lifts Me Higher. She ended the set with a stirring rendition of my favourite track off her first album - Let's Start a Band - a great song even without the horns and the choir. But I was curious as to what her core audience is - she does festivals, she is massive in Europe, Paul Weller has worked with her and yet she was ignored by the hip music press, and chose the least rock and roll venue in Manchester. The audience was more folky than rocky, which rather suits me. I'm well past that stage where I care whether something is hip or not, but I wonder about her - she's neither one thing nor the other. Far better than all that bland X Factor stuff, yet not folky hip either. Yet I think as her tour bus leaves Glasgow for a sell out concert at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday next week she's not going to be too bothered about whether Mark Ellen reviewed her album in the last issue of the Word.

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