The K.A.B. (Kick Ass Band)
Nancy Sinatra - Vocals
Don Randi - Keyboards
Clem Burke - Drums
John DePatie - Guitar
Danny Harvey - Guitar
Trent Stroh - Bass Guitar
Set List:
Bang
Bang
Your Groovy Self
How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?
Barricades And Brickwalls
Baby Please Don't Go
Let Me Kiss You
Easy Evil
Drummer Man
99 Miles From L.A.
Sixty Minute Man
Flowers
Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad
Somethin' Stupid
Tony Rome
Baby's Comin' Back to Me
Lightning's Girl
Sugar Town
These Boots Are Made For Walkin'
Encores:
You Only Live Twice
Don't Let Him Waste Your Time
Friday's Child
So Long Babe
Besamè Mucho
100 Years
The
Venue
The
Shepherds Bush Empire has presented some of the worlds most famous
artists over the years including; David Bowie, Eric Clapton, Sex
Pistols, Alanis Morissette, Paul McCartney, Blur, Bon Jovi, Elvis
Costello, The Who, The Osmond's, Katie Melua, to name but a few.
Built in 1903 and seating over 1600 Londoners, the concert hall
theatre has also been the home of such classic BBC TV shows as "Wogan",
"The Old Grey Whistle Test", and "Crackerjack".
According to rumour the Shepherds Bush Empire is also haunted.
Apparently a young man who worked at the theatre fell through the
domed roof to his death, and now haunts the Level 1 balcony at
night!
But on the night of May 1st 2005, the only thing to haunt the
Shepherds Bush Empire would be the voice of Nancy Sinatra.
(Photo: Lea St
Laurent)
The
Show
Tonight's show would be the final date of Nancy Sinatra's European
tour which kicked off in Manchester and then moved on through
Scotland, Holland, France, Germany, Spain and Portugal. It was only
fitting it would come to an end back here in England, at the
Shepherds Bush Empire in London.
The venue, although limited and a bit of a step down in size
compared to the grand surroundings of the Royal Festival Hall,
Nancy's first London show in 2004, the Shepherds Bush Empire had a
nice cosy feeling about it, and Nancy was going to be much closer to
the audience this time.
The clock had just turned 9:00 pm when I heard the familiar chords
of "Bang, Bang" begin to fill the theatre and the audience
start to cheer and clap. I almost panicked because at this
particular moment I was standing at the bar area situated at the
rear of the venue. I have known of concerts to start late but
Nancy's show started "early". The poster outside said Nancy would
appear on stage at 9:10 pm after the support act, Richard Hawley.
While I hurried back to my seat with anticipation the audience fell
eerily silent as they gazed mesmerized at Nancy on stage. Nancy
looked fabulous, she was wearing a glittering pink top with blue
Jeans and high heeled gold "boots".
"Bang, Bang" is the perfect opener in Nancy's show and set
the mood for the entire evening. Having lately been used in Quentin
Tarantino's motion picture "Kill Bill Vol.1" and now a hit remix for
the Audio Bullys (featuring Nancy Sinatra), Nancy's rendition of
this song is the best and is sure to remain in Nancy's act for many
years to come. And tonight it was just brilliant with the sound of
John DePatie's lonely guitar accompanying Nancy's haunting vocal. I
thought it was marvellous, the crowd thought so too.
The rest of the band kicked-in with the next song, "Your Groovy
Self", a fan favourite, especially for those who love the 1968
Elvis movie "SPEEDWAY" which co-starred Nancy.
"Drummer Man" Clem Burke (Photo: Lea St Laurent)
"I'm
Nancy, let's get friendly" said Nancy to the audience as she
launched into the next number, "How Does That Grab You, Darlin'?".
The proceedings were really beginning to heat up now.
This was the first song when I noticed the addition of the four
piece horn section. They may have been present on the previous song
but they really stood out here.
The horns were most welcome, they were missing from Nancy's historic
first UK concert in London at the Royal Festival Hall during
Morrissey's Meltdown in 2004, but tonight at Shepherds Bush Empire
they added that extra something special to Nancy's songs, especially
the more familiar hits from the '60s. It was great.
Following "How Does That Grab You" came "Barricades And
Brickwalls", a song written by Kasey Chambers and according to
Nancy, written just for her. The song was featured on the NANCY &
LEE 3 CD released in 2004. I thought Nancy delivered the song
very well, the drums and guitar particularly sounding good here too.
The next song, "Baby Please Don't Go", was one of the newer
songs in the set and is featured on Nancy's current self titled
album released by Sanctuary in 2004.
It's an up-tempo fast moving song and sounds great on the CD, but
tonight I felt the band members were playing everything louder than
everything else and I personally felt that Nancy was struggling a
little to keep-up pace with the band and her voice was drowned out
by the thumping of Clem Burke's frantic drums and John DePatie's
electrifying guitar.
Things soon got back on track again with the next couple of songs,
first with "Let Me Kiss You", which was penned by Nancy's
most recent mentor, Morrissey. This song, also from Nancy's new
album, hit #46 on the UK Charts when it was released here last
October. Nancy seemed more comfortable here and I thought Don Randi
on keys played superbly.
Next, I was pleasantly surprised to hear a live version of "Easy
Evil", a personal favourite of mine taken from Nancy's SHEET
MUSIC CD. This time the band (drums and guitars) calmed down a
little and allowed Nancy's beautiful voice to shine through
accompanied with the gentle sound of Don on the keys with the
occasional burst of DePatie's guitar. It was fantastic.
"Lightning's Girl" (Photo:
Lea St Laurent)
The show was moving
along nicely now and while a lengthy intro to "Drummer Man"
was being played by the band, Nancy thanked and introduced all the
individual band members. First on the drums, from "Blondie", one of
the great drummers of all time, Clem Burke. On guitar, the
boy with the shoes and 1950's Rock 'n' Roller outfit who looked like
he had been pulled from another band at the last minute, Danny
Harvey. On the other side of stage, also on guitar, John
DePatie. On bass and vocals, Trent Stroh. And on keys,
Nancy's friend for forty years who has played on almost all of
Nancy's albums, one of the original "Wrecking Crew", Don Randi.
Intros out of the way, Nancy launched full-on into "Drummer Man".
It was the perfect showcase for Nancy's own "drummer man" to do his
thing, Clem Burke, he was awesome.
"99 Miles From L.A.", probably the best song from Nancy's
CALIFORNIA GIRL CD was also one of the best performances by
Nancy on stage tonight. Nancy's voice was outstanding, hitting those
high notes perfectly, John DePatie chipped in with a blistering
performance on lead guitar.
After the next song, the fun "Sixty Minute Man" (a childhood
favourite of Nancy's), came the highlight for me, my personal
favourite of Nancy's love songs, "Flowers" (also from
SHEET MUSIC). When Nancy sings this song she never fails to
knock my socks off, it is just beautiful. There was some kind of
acting routine going on between Nancy and guitarist John DePatie
during "Flowers", it was interesting to watch, but I was more
hypnotised by Nancy's warm and haunting voice.
The next new song from the current album, "Two Shots Of Happy,
One Shot Of Sad" was written by U2's Bono and the Edge and
originally intended for Frank Sinatra. Nancy showed us she can sing
all styles of music, even Jazz. Nancy captured the mood and spirit
perfectly as she delivered this intimate song with charm, just like
a saloon singer standing beside the piano late at night. Don Randi
was in the spotlight here and he was outstanding on piano, this was
definitely his showcase of the evening.
The spirit of Frank Sinatra seemed to fill the theatre while Nancy
sang "Two Shots Of Happy...", it was if though he was watching over
Nancy with a proud smile on his face. The audience and myself were
certainly very proud of her too.
The next two songs were appropriately dedicated to Nancy's father.
The crowd went crazy when Nancy sat on her high stool and sang
alongside her papa to the hit "Somethin' Stupid", the crowd
were singing along too.
I had great expectations of hearing this tonight but I was a little
disappointed to be honest. I couldn't quite hear Nancy very well at
all. It sounded as if Nancy's microphone was not switched on for the
most part. Something didn't sound right, maybe the sound engineer
was having problems, I don't know???
The next song took me by surprise. Nancy sang the title song to one
of her fathers movies, "Tony Rome". It was brilliant. Another
favourite of mine and sounded great live, especially with the
accompanying horn section.
"su-su-su-su-su-su-Sugar
Town" (Photo: Lea St Laurent)
The support act, the
very talented Richard Hawley, was called back up on stage by
Nancy for the next song, "Baby's Comin' Back to Me". It was
one of two songs on Nancy's new album that was co-produced by
Hawley. It is a warm and lovely song with meaningful heartrending
lyrics written by Jarvis Cocker of PULP.
Nancy then took the audience on a trip back to the sixties and sang
her greatest hits one after another, "Lightning's Girl", "Sugar
Town" and her biggest hit "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'".
Nancy stepped down from the stage during this spot of the show and
joined the audience. The whole venue erupted with applause and
excitement. Nancy moved up the aisles from seat to seat greeting the
fans and shaking many hands and singing "Su-Su-Su-Sugar Town". At
one point Nancy sat down in an empty seat and watched the band on
stage as though she was a member of the audience, it was very funny
indeed.
The audience were left exhausted after Nancy sang her number one
greatest hit of all, "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'".
I sensed that proceedings were nearing an end and most people
thought the show was almost over now, but were hungry for more.
Everyone was expecting Nancy to perform an encore or two, but when
Nancy returned to the stage she sang and sang and sang, she was
incredible. One thing was missing though.... where were the
legendary "Boots"? They were nowhere to be seen. Instead Nancy had
replaced her "walk all over you" boots with something a bit more
comfortable, a pair of sheepskin boots??? Whatever Nancy was
comfortable in, was alright with me though.
After Nancy thanked the boys in the band one more time, Nancy said
there were two reasons for her being nervous tonight, she explained
one reason was because she had a horrible cold and apologized for
hitting any bad notes but suggested (humorously) to the audience to
"come again another night".
The second reason was because there was a lot of friends here
tonight who were very dear to Nancy's heart and were members of the
audience which included, Chrissy Most (Micky's widow) and some
important people from Sanctuary, Nancy's record label.
There was one very special friend in the audience remaining that
Nancy was to introduce to us and the real reason for Nancy being so
nervous. That very special person was the great composer Leslie
Bricusse, the man who wrote the lyrics to the Bond song and Nancy's
second most requested hit of all time, "You Only Live Twice".
According to Google (Nancy said she Google's herself on the
internet) it was 37 years this month when Nancy recorded the song in
London with Bricusse and John Barry. Tonight was to be the first
time that Nancy had performed the song before Leslie Bricusse since
it was originally recorded, she was frightened, just as she was the
first time back in London 37 years ago.
After a shaky start (who could blame her?), Nancy soon settled down
and delivered a very memorable and marvellous performance.
(Photo credit:
Damon King)
Nancy was to call back
Richard Hawley on stage one last time to perform together the second
of the Jarvis Cocker penned tracks, "Don't Let Him Waste Your
Time" and my personal favourite song from the new album. I have
loved this song ever since I first heard Nancy perform it live on
Friday Night With Jonathan Ross on TV last year. It's a shame
the song has not been released as a single.
Of the new material from the current album that was performed
tonight, I thought this was the song that sounded best live. But
then again, maybe that it is because of the fact it is my favourite.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Back to the older hits again now with, "Friday's Child",
Nancy's very own favourite of all her songs written by Lee Hazlewood.
Nancy dedicated the song to Lee who was poorly in hospital after
major surgery to remove a kidney. We all hope Lee makes a full and
speedy recovery.
"Friday's Child" sounded stunning, Danny Harvey providing an
excellent guitar solo.
The show was almost
over but I was so happy to hear my most favourite of all Nancy's
songs next on the set list, "So Long, Babe". This is one song
that really knows how to tug on my heart strings and bring a tear to
my eye. Tonight the song sounded a little different, I felt the
tempo was a little slower. I liked it a lot.
Just when I thought it was all over, it wasn't quite "so long babe"
just yet, Nancy came back for more. Her stamina is just amazing,
unbelievable, she sang her heart out tonight. The fans were really
getting their money's worth.
A new song "Besamè Mucho" was introduced into the set. Nancy
sang it beautifully, with the brass section also making a huge
impact, sounding like it had come straight out of a spaghetti
western. I hope this new song appears on the next album.
Finally, at approximately 10:40 pm, the show ended with "100 Years". The song could have been renamed "100 Minutes", for that was
how long this fantastic and memorable evening had lasted.
It was "An Evening With Nancy Sinatra" that I, and I'm
certain hundreds of others here tonight will never forget.
Lea St Laurent
