MARI WILSON

GIG: Mari Wilson
DATE: Saturday 5th March
VENUE: The Old Town Hall, High Street, Hemel Hempstead
COST: £14 (and that’s it, no booking fee, no postage charge.... (YES they post the tix out and cover the cost themselves!)
OUR VERDICT: Brill, glam, terrific
LINKS
http://www.mariwilson.co.uk/


The Old Town Hall is an intimate venue and is a great place to catch Mari Wilson up close and personal. She appeared on stage wearing a fab gold and black dress, long gloves and adorable open toed stillettos and kicked off with “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” recorded by Mari as the theme to the hit BBC comedy “Coupling”. Straight away we were captivated. Although we have seen Mari perform the songs in her set a few times, they never seem to age or get tired.

Tonight the 1st set repertoire also included a lovely “My Love” (which had a gentle guitar solo from Scott Firth), the fantastic cover of The Beach Boys’ “Disney Girls”, “Would You Dance with A Stranger” and Mari’s own compositions with her musical collaborator Adrian York, “Killing Time” & “Hits And Misses”, which is like an old classic you have known forever. Interspersed through the music were many whimsical tales from her time in the music business. She’s turning into Billy Connolly when he was in The Humblebums.... telling as many funny stories as singing songs!

The penultimate song of the first set was a great audience participation version of “Close To You,” before a knock-out “I Close My Eyes And Count To Ten”, her favourite song from when she starred as Dusty in the musical a few years ago.

The 2nd half (with a change of outfit, rounded off perfectly with a dazzling pair of high heeled mules), included a terrific rendition of “Be My Baby” with Adrian York tinkling the ivories, “Wild Horses” that worked really well with the piano and acoustic guitar and a cover of Peggy Lee’s “I Don’t Want To Play In your Yard” which had a lovely bit of a spanish guitar flair on it. We were also treated to another set of compositions by Mari and Adrian, “Forever Young”, “Right For You” and “Getting There” from her “Emotional Glamour” and “Dolled Up” albums.
The encore was “Cry Me River” with Mari sounding really strong and the the grand finale - the hit she will be remembered most for “Just What I Always Wanted”. There was no Taffeta dress tonight, but we got a great set of songs that really showed off Mari’s sensational voice.
It was a particularly good audience in the Old Town Hall tonight, and it didn’t take much encouragement to get everyone singing along when called to do so.

1 comment:

  1. I thought you might be interested in the latest news from Mari Wilson.

    Mari Wilson is well known for her hits "Just what I always wanted" and
    "Baby it's true" in the 80's.
    Later on she played Dusty Springfield in "Dusty the Musical" and she
    released 3 more critically aclaimed albums in the 90's and 00's.
    She also sang the theme song for the BBC-series "Coupling", a freat
    version of "Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps".
    Now she regularly tours in the UK, as a solo artist but also with Barb
    Jungr and Gwyneth Herbert with their show "Girl Talk".
    (http://www.girltalkdivas.co.uk/)

    But what's that latest news???
    Well, Mari Wilson is about to release a new album called "Covers".
    But she does that in a rather unfamiliar way...
    Mari Wilson has joined www.pledgemusic.com to release her next album!
    This is what she said about on her own website:

    "At last, we're ready to launch the campaign for my new upcoming album.
    This time, an album of covers and the whole approach is completely
    different from anything I've ever done before. This time it means you and
    I can be involved together in the whole process. You'll see that there are
    different things you can pledge for to help us get this album made and
    there is a widget for a free download of a Dusty Springfield song to give
    you an idea of what's to come. Also if you click on the Pledge Badge
    below, it will take you to the site where there is a video blog and all
    the information you need. I'll be updating constantly. Let me know what
    you think. More soon. Thanks, Mari"

    No go to http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/mariwilson for more info.

    Also visit http://www.mariwilson.co.uk/ for more info about Mari Wilson
    herself!

    Mind you, I live in the Netherlands and I am not a manager or promoter.
    I'm just a big fan of Mari Wilson and just like to spread the news for
    her. I also do so via my own website www.pmachinery.com and my personal
    facebook page.

    Best wishes,

    Ronald van Veen
    The Netherlands

    www.pmachinery.com

    ReplyDelete