The Royal Northern College of Music - The last time I saw Joanne Shaw Taylor, I was unfortunate enough to have to negotiate my way around Birmingham’s hideous road network in the belief that the best show of the tour, would be the one she plays on her home turf - and I wasn’t to be disappointed. It was worth the madness and frustration of Birmingham’s City Centre. This time though, I thought I’d head North to Manchester, firstly to avoid Birmingham, but secondly, because it’s the opening night of the ‘EU Tour 2024’. The Royal Northern College of Music is the chosen venue and a fine one it is too, but one that normally lends itself to operatic and orchestral performances, so how it’ll handle Ms. Shaw Taylor rocking the life out of it remains to be seen.
Connor Selby
Support tonight comes from Connor Selby, who I first encountered last year when he opened for Beth Hart. Now Selby has made ‘Young Artist of the Year’ at the UK Blues Awards his own in recent years, having won it in 2020, 2021 and 2022. This year, however, he steps up a level having been nominated for ‘Contemporary Blues Artist of the Year’, where he sits alongside the esteemed company of Alice Armstrong, Dom Martin, Emma Wilson and Troy Redfern.
As is the way with Supports these days, we only get six songs, all solo, and, in Selby’s case, from a seated position as it was on the Beth Hart Tour - I must be a tough choice deciding whether to let the music do the talking in an acoustic, but cost effective fashion or tell it the way it is with a full band, and all the expense that goes with it. Perhaps the decision was easier for Selby this time around as he heads out on his own tour straight after this one, starting in Wolverhampton on 3rd March, and finishing up in Devon in the middle of April.
All of the songs come from his first two releases and Manchester was paying him the attention that he’s earned over the last few years. There’s some gentle banter in between the tunes about how singing the blues is all he ever wanted to do and how it’s affected him and his life, but it’s his guitar skills that shows through not least at the end with a brilliant performance of ‘Emily’ – of whom we are none the wiser about afterwards, but it’s all good stuff and a pleasant way to start an evening.
Connor Selby Set List
Falling in Love Again
The Deep End
The Truth Comes Out Eventually
That’s Alright
Hear My Prayer
Emily
Joanne Shaw Taylor
Shaw Taylor has come a long way since she was discovered by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics fame, a dozen and a half or so years ago. Now, she has a reputation for her exceptional guitar skills, unmistakeable vocals and a talent for song writing that generates a whole new audience each she releases something new, which brings us nicely on to tonight as we’re only a few short months away from the release of ‘Heavy Soul’ from which we’ll get a sneak peak, as well as a good few treats from the now extensive back catalogue, in particular, ‘Nobody’s Fool’ and ‘The Blues Album’, if the press release is to be believed.
Most of the crowd have retired to the bar during the interval, but polite venues like this ‘kindly invite you to take your seats as the performance is about to begin’. This causes a bit of a melee as there are a number of stairs to negotiate and not enough lifts to get you from one level to the other. By the time everyone is seated, the band are already on stage waiting for the lights to drop. When they finally do, Shaw Taylor enter the fray, dressed in black with her long, blonde hair draped over her right shoulder, and in her unmistakeable ‘Black Country’ accent acknowledges us with “Good evening, Manchester. How the Devil Are You?” Before we’ve had time to respond the band kicks in with the overture ‘In the Mood’. Our venue now knows what it’s in for tonight, especially when Joanne launches into a blistering solo, the first of many that we shall enjoy, this evening.
As with all of her gigs, there’s plenty of banter in between songs and tonight wasn’t to be any different as she’s tells us that the last time she played here, she set the fire alarm off in the dressing rooms - according to the venue that is - which was a neat trick to pull as she was on stage at the time “but this didn’t wash, so I blamed it on Bernie” - whoever Bernie may be. Some wag in the crowd knew though, as the shout went out “Bernie be name, Bernie by nature” ! At this Joanne decides there’s been enough banter and dives straight into ‘Can’t See You’, followed by ‘If That Ain’t a Reason’ and ‘Dying to Know’.
Taking a moment to get her breath back, the appeal goes out for us to visit the Merch Table, where she’ll be after the show with the added attraction of her new friend, a puppy named Hank. This is a shrewd marketing ploy if ever there was one, who can resist a cute little puppy when it’s in the arms of one of your heroes !
Advert over and we get to hear a track from the new album “which is out in June, I think, but I didn’t read the press release, but I’m sure you guys did”. ‘Wild Love’ is the chosen tune, which had a real commercial feeling to it and should please the radio stations no end.
By now I can’t help feeling, like I always do, that I really want to see Taylor Shaw rock a joint with a full light show and all the effects that go with it, the kind of venues that she normally heads for, don’t have and whilst her musical and personal performance can’t be faulted, I sometimes feel that the atmosphere is lacking a little. Not even a projected logo at the back of the stage this time. It’s probably just me and overall, her audiences prefer to sit than stand at her gigs, but I live in hope. One day eh?
Another big favourite of the radio stations is Joanne’s attempt at a tune with an 80’s pop vibe, “not Duran Duran or Wham, more Stevie Nicks” and her desire for the video “to have more cheese than the cheesiest thing in any video of that time”. She compels us to watch it on YouTube when we get home “and if you don’t like it “You’re wrong !” She insists.
The most poignant part of the evening comes when Joanne ‘let’s us in’ and tells of the time when she lost her mother to cancer at the young age of 57 and the emotions that you go through. “You might not get 57 years, so reach out if you’re in trouble” she says. The song that says it all is ‘Fade Away’ and a Joanne justifies it by saying “It’s a blues gig you didn’t come here to be happy”.
With the lumps in our throat a duly swallowed, we head for the home straight with ‘Runaway’, “which tells the story of a grudge from an ex-lover which caused one journo to suggest she has commitment issues”. Which she says, she doesn’t. We won’t dwell on the point.
With a few moments taken to introduce the band, there’s time for one more song from the new album ‘Sweet Lil’ Lies’ before we finish things off with a stunning version of ‘Bad Love’ which sends Manchester into raptures and the applause come thick and loud and before the song had fully finished. When it did, Manchester stood, and the applause continued all the more.
The lights went up only for enough time for the band to leave and come straight back on again - I love a fake ending, as cheesy as they are.
Joanne waits for the applause to die down and casts our minds back to March 2020, when she was “sat at home watching Downtown Abbey and drinking box wine like a champion thinking she’d never gig again”. She tells us that she’s so grateful that we come out to see her. “All the musicians went off to get proper jobs, but I couldn’t do that as I left school at fifteen with no GCSE’s”. Ah, me too Joanne, me too !
The night is fully finished off with ‘Going Home’, the perfect song to send us on our way having had as good an experience as you could ever expect to have from a JST gig.
Here’s to next year.
Shaw Taylor has nine more dates in the UK until 29th February (yes, it’s a leap year and thou shalt be allowed to propose to thy beloved at the show, if thou so wishes) and then she heads off back to the US for 22 dates starting at the end of March, through until the beginning of May.
EU Tour 2024 Dates
Sat 17th - RNCM, Manchester
Sun 18th - Queen Margaret Union, Glasgow
Mon 19th - City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds
Weds 21st - The Fire Station, Sunderland
Thurs 22nd - Indigo at The O2, London
Fri 23rd - The Wulfrun, Wolverhampton
Sun 25th - The Waterfront, Norwich
Mon 26th - De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill
Weds 28th - The Apex, Bury St Edmunds
Thurs 29th - Palace Theatre, Southend
Joanne Shaw Taylor Setlist
In the Mood
Keep On Lovin' Me (Otis Rush cover)
All My Love
If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody (James Ray cover)
Can't You See What You're Doing to Me (Albert King cover)
If That Ain’t a Reason
Dying to Know
Wild Love
Won't Be Fooled Again
Watch 'em Burn
Diamonds in the Dirt
Fade Away
Runaway
Sweet Lil Lies
Bad Love
Encore:
Going Home
Written in association with Noble PR
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