A MEMORABLE KNIGHT

Saturday night was Gladys Knight! O and I saw her at the Royal Albert Hall and she was great.

Not the best soul room in the land I was a bit trepeditious about the evening. I was expecting it to be a supperclub performance plus orchestra with maybe a toe-curling "I wanna take you back with a medley of my hits" segment with a mid-tempo skip through her deep soul classics from her Motown and Buddah years. It didn't bode well from the start when her support act was a comedian. We sat it out in the bar which soon filled with bemused punters who had expected a soul singer. This of course meant that the bar staff of two had no time to fill the interval drinks orders so when the interval soon arrived, the bar was bedlam. I know this as I was trying to be served at the time.

We had checked out our seats when we arrived and were gobsmacked to find we were 3 rows from the stage! Owen had told me we were towards the back so I hadn't bothered checking. Needless to say thanks to the RAH's low stage we had a great view of Gladys and her on-stage band: conductor, 3 backing singers, 7 travelling band members and a London string section. She walked out to a standing ovary (me included) and launched into a frantic "Friendship Train" - a lesser-known Motown hit - followed quickly by the 1988 hit "Love Overboard". It was great, lights were flashing, the band was tight and Gladys' white flowing diamante-flecked outfit was loose! She was in glorious voice all evening, effortless in range and power. She mined the depths of soul for "If I Were Your Woman" and "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)", maintained the tense vocal for "Licence To Kill" with ease (a surprising appearance in the set), earned a standing ovation for a lovely "The Way We Were" - owning the song now as much as Streisand - and jazzing it up with 5 selections from her new Verve cd BEFORE ME of classics from earlier singers who inspired her.

The show ended when she was joined onstage by older brother Bubba who was also one of the Pips! They dueted on a funky cover of Al Green's "Love And Happiness" then managed to bring the house down and the audience to it's feet with "Midnight Train To Georgia". They encored with a downhome rendition of their version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", a hit for them before Marvin Gaye.

A fan of 30-odd years, I have always thought Gladys as one of the great soul singers, after seeing her live I now think she is possibly the greatest. Even a hellish journey afterwards back to O's after which lasted well over two hours has been forgotten in the glow of Gladness.