Lisa Stansfield

Symphony Hall, Birmingham on Fri 5th Sep 2014

I have been a long time admirer of Lisa Stansfield, I am that old I remember her on 'Hitman and Her' and 'Search for a Star', I have followed her music career with a close eye ever since her debut, singing with Blue Zone where she was a guest vocalist on track 'People Hold On', this was the stepping stone for Stansfield's solo career.

Stansfield's been around for quite a while, her first album 'Affection' was out in 1989, (I do feel old J), which plummeted Stansfield in to the limelight with lead single 'All Around the World', with nominations for two Grammy awards the world was her oyster.

'Affection', so far is her best selling album to date, its no wonder really, with Stansfield classics such as 'This is The Right Time', 'AllAround The World', 'What Did I Do For You' and 'You Can't Deny It'. But this hasn't stopped the re-release of all her albums as deluxe editions, its hard to think that this women has been around for what seems like a lifetime and any of her back catalogue is at home in anyone's CD collection (Or MP3).

With six studio albums and her seventh, believe it or not called 'Seven' released a few months back Stansfield announced a ten date UK tour followed by a brief swizz over to Europe for another 11 dates.

Tonight is the opening date of the tour in Birmingham at the astounding venue which is the Symphony Hall, it provides an amazing backdrop acoustically and visually for any singer with balls and Stansfield has definitely got this.

Support for tonight is from Mama's Guns, I've seen them a couple of times before supporting another vocal powerhouse, that is local Black Country girl Beverley Knight.

It was a shame Symphony Hall was half empty as they are a good band and were definitely giving it some.

Lisa Stansfield came on stage a tad after 21.00 hours, suitably late, only by ten minutes though. Her eight piece band and backing singer lined up her appearance on stage. Dressed in all Black, a backless, slinky number, with a flowery headdress with matching lacy flower climbing up her leg. I only saw that cause she kept lifting her dress up during the first three songs!

She came onstage to rapturous applause, and within minutes of belting out the first few bars of the first tune Stansfield waved the audience to get up out of their sits and to dance in the aisles.

Lisa Stansfield

A lot of the shows at Symphony Hall are a bit grannyish, where as the audience just tend to sit and don't think they can get up and dance, I had the same when I saw Emeli Sande here, but tonight wasn't one of those nights, only when Stansfield sang a few slower numbers.

The stage was simple, just a red back drop, no fancy pyrotechnics or dancers, just Stansfield and her band. Tickets for tonight were reasonable, but if you were a real fan and fancied a met and greet with your idol you'd be prepared to shell out £99 for the privilege. I did speak to a couple of the VIP's sat at the front and they said they only met the star herself for a few minutes.

A 90 minute set we were treated to, a rollercoaster ride of emotions, at times I felt like I was back in Cuba, all the happy clappy stuff, just made you wanna jump out of your seat and dance like a mad women. Stansfield kept egging on the audience to get out of their seats and they listened.

We were treated to such gems as 'The Real Thing', 'Change', 'There Goes My Heart and 'Make it Right'.

The best part of the show was when Stansfield did a few acoustic bits, back to the bare bones and all you could hear was her amazing voice. At times during the show it seemed like the band were a tad too loud for Stansfield's voice., we did hear rumblings from a couple of fans sitting by us, that they thought the music was too loud and Stansfield's performance was rather poor. Obviously all I can comment on, is what I saw and heard on the night as it was the first time I'd seen her live.

Stansfield is a seasoned performer and has been in the business 20+ years, although she hasn't been in the limelight really for years and her last studio album was a decade ago, so tonight was rather special in more ways than one. Lisa Stansfield is back!

Lisa Stansfield

article by: Michelle & Trish Owen-Williams

photos by: Michelle Owen-Williams

published: 09/09/2014 10:45



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