Nancy Sinatra
Live at the Morrissey Meltdown Festival
South Bank Centre, London
20th June 2004
 

 

Set List:

Bang Bang
About A Fire
Lightning's Girl
How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?
Barricades And Brick walls
99 Miles From L.A.
In Our Time
Drummer Man
Bossman
It's For My Dad/Two Shots of Happy...
Good Time Girl
Let Me Kiss You
Your Groovy Self
Friday's Child
You Only Live Twice
Sugar Town
These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
100 Years

Encores:

Flowers
So Long, Babe
The Last Of The Secret Agents
These Boots Are Made For Walkin'

Bang, Bang

It was approximately 9.00pm. Finally the moment had arrived. The lights had dimmed.
Suddenly the crowd began to cheer and clap.
I could make out a figure walk on to the stage, it was Nancy.
It was still dark, something was wrong though, the stage was still very silent.
Then a soft, friendly and lovely voice spoke to the audience on the mic.
"Shhh, you're not supposed to know I'm here yet," said Nancy.
The audience applauded with laughter.
It was a funny way to break the ice, a great entrance.
There seemed to be a small technical problem. Nancy said they had been having the problem all day.
The problem was soon fixed and Nancy made her entrance proper and the crowd cheered to the opening notes of "Bang, Bang".
What an opening, the perfect song to begin with.
Nancy delivered the song like no one else can. It was perfect.

After such a terrific opening, Nancy continued to deliver, and the set list just got better and better as the show progressed. It was incredible.
Next up was "About A Fire", the first new song from Nancy's forthcoming album "To Nancy, With Love". Then Nancy went on to belt out fantastic live versions of her familiar sixties hits like, "Lightning's Girl", "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?", "In Our Time" and "Drummer Man". Fans were also treated to a couple of more recent favourites, "99 Miles From L.A." and a solo take on "Barricades And Brick walls", a new song which is featured as a duet with Lee Hazlewood on the recently released "Nancy & Lee 3" album.

The whole show was one big highlight for me, but there were some great moments during the show that I will never forget.
Nancy paid a loving father's day tribute to her father, the late great Frank Sinatra, with a very emotional performance of "It's For My Dad" which led straight into a new song written by U2's Bono and the Edge, "Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad" which was marvellous.
Nancy cried during this moment, I myself struggled to hold back tears. Nancy is so sweet and lovely.
There must have been many others in the audience who were touched and moved by Nancy's performance during this song.

Nancy soon overcame her tears and launched into a cracking version of "Good Time Girl" accompanied with clips of Nancy's movies on the projection screen.
The crowd loved it, especially with the clips of Elvis taken from the motion picture SPEEDWAY (1968) and also scenes featuring biker-chick Nancy with Peter Fonda from the film The Wild Angels (1966), the crowd erupted with cheers of joy.
For me, it was the first time I have ever seen any clips from the film The Last Of The Secret Agents (1966). It left me wanting to see this film even more now.

The next highlight of the night was the unveiling of another new song "Let Me Kiss You", which I was looking forward to hearing for the very first time. Penned by this years director of the Meltdown Festival himself, Morrissey.
Stunning song, I love it. I can't wait to rush out and by the single when it finally gets released. It deserves to be a big hit for Nancy.
There was a slight distraction during Nancy's performance of "Let Me Kiss You" some clown ran down to the front of the stage in front of Nancy and began to wave his arms and legs all over the place for some reason. I think he was supposed to be dancing or something. I was confused as to what he was doing. The security guys let him prance around during the entire length of the song, very strange. I wondered if it was a set-up or something.

Nancy continued to perform all my favourite songs one after another magnificently, "Your Groovy Self", "Friday's Child" and the James Bond hit "You Only Live Twice".
During the next song, "Sugar Town", Nancy walked of the stage and came to the audience.
I knew what would happen next and I was dreading it.
I know Nancy likes to put the microphone in the face of a lucky, or should I say unlucky fan during the "su-su-su-su-su-su-SUGAR TOWN" section of the song.
It was a relief for me not to get picked, but other members of the audience had the privilege of singing "su-su-su."

Next up came the most unexpected moment of the entire show.
Nancy, who was still of the stage and directly in front of the audience launched into a rip-roaring version of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'".
All of a sudden the crowd went crazy and people left their seats and joined Nancy down the front of the stage.
Nancy was surrounded by ecstatic fans dancing and singing along, it was wild down there.
I stayed by my seat and watched the party.
To be honest I was worried for Nancy, I felt she took a huge risk doing what she did but the security guys were well on hand nearby just in case. They did a tremendous job all night.

After "Boots", Nancy returned to the stage and gave us an outstanding performance of "100 years" and then onto the first encore which was a personal highlight for me which was "Flowers". This song was the most haunting moment of the entire show for me.
The hairs on my neck were standing on end and I had Goosebumps. It was equally as good as the record version, if not better. In fact, I think Nancy sounds even better today than what she did in the '60s on most of her songs she performed tonight.

After "Flowers" I thought it was all over. Nancy left the stage but the crowd were going crazy and were hungry for more.
Nancy returned with a second encore, "So Long, Babe", my all time favourite Nancy song. I love it.
But it didn't end there.

Nancy really gave her fans their money's worth on the night and continued with another stunner "The Last Of The Secret Agents" and yet another generous helping of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" but this time Nancy's "boots" stayed safely on the stage.
And then... it really was all over.
Nancy Sinatra's first ever London gig. It's taken 38 years for Nancy to get here, but boy was it worth the wait.... unbelievable!
Thank you Nancy, you were terrific. Please come back soon, we love you here.

Lea St Laurent