View from the Green Room: Did we really live and love through all those years?
Leslie Dowdall and Flo McSweeney performed at Theatre Royal.
Irish rock icons Leslie Dowdall of In Tua Nua and Flo McSweeney of Toy With Rhythm and Moving Hearts are back on the scene performing classics from the pens of 1970s songwriting legends Carole King and Linda Ronstadt to a big house of mostly crinklies on the Mall.
It’s somewhat of a daunting task for the songstresses because everyone in the audience knows the tunes. And all the words. The audience mouths along unless invited by the singers to join in and – guess what? – they’re all in tune and on tempo.
Carole King wrote, or co-wrote, 118 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100 during the second half of the 20th century and 61 songs that reached the UK charts. She became the most successful female songwriter on the UK singles charts from 1962 to 2005.
It’s a show that leaves little to chance. The band is excellent, dusky pink and night blue lighting gives the set a café ambience and a rear screen projection fills with the title of songs and the album they come from. When the duo open with ‘Cryin’ in the rain’, all the hurt of a spurned relationship spills out onto the stage.
Linda Ronstadt’s career walks a similar path as Carole King’s. Ronstadt released 24 studio albums and 15 greatest hits albums. She charted 38 singles. Twenty-one of those singles reached the top 40 US Billboard Hot 100, ten reached the top 10, and ‘You’re no good’ reached number one. She also charted 36 albums, 10 top-10 albums, and three number one albums on the US Billboard chart.
Carole’s songs are genuine classics and tonight’s performance from Flo and Leslie captures all the subtleties and joy these songs inspire.
Her ‘Tapestry’ album was an instant and massive success. With numerous hit singles, including a Billboard No. 1 with ‘It's Too Late’, Tapestry held the number one spot on the albums chart for 15 consecutive weeks, remained on the chart for nearly six years, and sold over 30 million copies.
So…plenty for Flo and Leslie to get their teeth into and what follows is an absolute delight. ‘Tapestry’ songs hits all the right notes with the audience. ‘It’s too late, baby’…'I feel the earth move'…'Home again'…'Will you still love me tomorrow?'...'Smack water Jack’ and, of course, ‘You’ve got a friend’ where the audience performs part of the number. The whole show feels so easy and flows seamlessly along.
Rondstadt’s songs tend to have a stronger C&W edge but they’re all big hits with tonight’s audience. ‘You’re no good'…'Love is a curse'…'It’s so easy'...'It doesn’t matter anymore'…'Desperado'…'Tumblin’ dice'…'Love has no pride'…'Blue Bayou’.
‘Natural Born Woman’ seems the perfect opening for this journey through all these timeless classics and I step out into the still warm October-summer night wondering did I really live and love through all those years?
