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Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Rick Pearson's rating
Reader rating
Website: www.rbkc.gov.uk/acrossthestreet
Email: arts@rbkc.gov.uk
Redemption songs: Corinne Bailey Rae at the Tabernacle
Heartbreak: Bailey Rae with her husband, Jason, who died last year
Corinne Bailey Rae’s world was turned upside down last year when her husband, Scottish saxophonist Jason Rae, died from an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol.
Before that moment, the Leeds singer, the daughter of a Kittitian father and English mother, was busy making a name for herself as the pleasant, if somewhat unremarkable, face of British pop-soul: easy on eye and ear but equally easy to forget.
The new Bailey Rae is a different proposition entirely. One listen to the 30-year-old’s forthcoming album, The Sea, which is released in February, reveals an artist who’s gone through a musical transformation.
Gone are the lightweight pop songs of her big-selling debut, replaced instead by deeply personal ballads that drip with emotion.
The Tabernacle, a converted church in Notting Hill, provided the appropriately pious setting to hear these songs on her first major show since her husband’s death.
Backed by a six-piece band, which switched effortlessly from laid-back jazz to thundering rock, the doe-eyed singer transfixed the crowd for her hour-long set.
She started with Are You Here, one of the many songs on the new album that is dedicated to her late husband.
Based around a chiming guitar figure and lyrics about a “real livewire”, it built to an ethereal chorus with Bailey Rae’s voice — once a crisp, clear instrument designed for the radio — now echoing the slurred, pained tones of Nina Simone.
Even the older tracks, such as the guitar-led Like A Star, gained gravitas as a ballad to a lost love, while Put Your Records On wore its soulful makeover well. Last night was about the new songs, however, and none was more successful than lead single I’d Do It All Again.
Starting with a gently picked guitar figure, it built to an earthmoving crescendo of which Jeff Buckley would have been proud, with Bailey Rae’s broken-yet-triumphant voice achieving a feeling of ecstatic melancholy.
And that was the glorious thing: the songs managed to be both incredibly sad and incredibly uplifting.
That Bailey Rae is singing at all is impressive; that she managed to sing a heartbroken ballad such as I Would Like to Call it Beauty (“Too young for death, we walk in shoes too big”) with a wistful smile on her face was nothing short of inspiring.
More than just a gig, this was a breathtaking reminder of the redemptive power of song.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
