Neneh Cherry
THE LOVE INN, BRISTOL | 24 FEBRUARY
When Bristol promotion captains Team Love acquired a venue they appropriately called the Love Inn, we were promised special guests playing intimate sets in their 200 capacity bar. We all like a secret gig. And we all get a bit disappointed when instead of The Libertines reuniting for sweaty carnage, we get a Carl Barat DJ set.
So when it was announced that Neneh Cherry would be popping into the newly refurbished Cheltenham Rd haunt to play a proper show (and, as you can see from the picture above, check out their new kitchen facilities), that was all the incentive this weekend weary reviewer needed to travel the short distance and check out an artist who commands the utmost reverence from male and female fans alike.
The younger music heads familiar with last year’s jazz influenced collaboration, The Cherry Thing, are sharing space with the older generation hoping for some of the more hip-hop laced stylings of her ’89 debut Raw Like Sushi. What we get is her material from her first solo record in 18 years, the Four Tet-assisted Blank Project, played in its absolute entirety with collaborators RocketNumberNine. In many other cases a set completely made-up of new songs might be classed as self-indulgent, but there’s such potency to her new material that come the end of the show, any debate about the quality witnessed was diminished.
RocketNumberNine’s drummer has long been someone Crack has admired, but tonight his performance tethers Neneh along tracks that feel completely at home in Bristol with its bass-weight and inclination towards experimental beats. The percussive breaks on Out Of The Black (her duet with Robyn) is definitely single material and the title track of the album, with its shuffling melody, is genuinely the kind of sound you’d expect Massive Attack to be churning out if Cherry was to be in their studio.
Confrontational lyrics are delivered with authenticity, but there’s a warmth to the performance reflecting the artist’s genuine excitement of being back on the stage, and a rapturously received re-working of the colossal Buffalo Stance ends an exceptionally intimate performance.Witnessing this on larger stages this summer will be a highlight for music fans of more than just one generation.
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Words: Thomas Frost
Photo: Team Love
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