P.P. Arnold
P.P. Arnold featuring Steve Cradock
Arlington Arts Centre
Newbury
Thursday 10th October 2019, 20.00
Support: Jon Allen (see at end)
THE BAND:
Corrections on spelling names welcomed – please use Comments below. P.P. Arnold was much clearer in introducing the band than most singers are, but even so as people applaud it’s easy to get the name wrong.
P.P. Arnold – vocals
Steve Cradock – guitars, musical director
Andy Flynn – bass guitars, guitar
Tony Coote – drums
Justin Dobson – keyboards
Sam Smith – trombone
Steve Trigg – trumpet
Connie McColl- vocals
Tisha Smith – vocals
SETLIST:
Though It Hurts Me Badly
Baby Blue
Everything’s Gonna Be Alright
Different Drum
I Believe
Medicated Goo
I’m A Dreamer
Shoot The Dove
(If You Think You’re) Groovy
Hold On To Your Dreams
YouGot Me
Eleanor Rigby
Still Trying
The Magic Hour
Angel of The Morning
encores
Life Is But Nothing
God Only Knows
The First Cut Is The Deepest
P.P. Arnold is partly to blame for my huge collection of 45s. My three years at Hull University coincided with the greatest three years in British rock, but I could afford few new singles. I bought lots of ex-juke box soul, for a spot of DJ-ing. I was hugely selective about new 45s and the ones I bought included Strawberry Fields Forever, All You Need Is Love, Hey Jude, Purple Haze, A Whiter Shade of Pale, See Emily Play, Out of Time. And of course The First Cut Is The Deepest and Angel of The Morning. When we moved in 1993, my four boxes of 45s sat in a cupboard while we did the frightening stuff old houses land you with … re-plumbing here, rewiring there, new bathroom. So around 1998 the boxes of 45s came back out. I had an exercise book where each had a number (OK, laugh if you must, but I started it in 1962) and the older ones were in number sequence, stored in those 7″ carrying cases. The First Cut Is The Deepest was #167, bought on the same day as The Wind Cries Mary and All You Need Is Love. A generous birthday present.
About ten were missing, nicked by someone working in the house, or maybe some kid at a teenage party who went exploring. They were mainly replaceable Motown (all my Supremes), but also both P.P. Arnold singles. Those were the ones that hurt, and sent me to secondhand record shops and record fairs, and yes, I replaced them. In fact I have a few because if I saw a cleaner copy, I bought it again. (If you ever see one for sale with #167 in the corner, it’s mine). Then the 45 collection bug REALLY took off as I started a book (still unfinished) on collecting 45s and record labels. Later, I did the Toppermost article on P.P. Arnold, linked below.
This is the tour behind her New Adventures of P.P. Arnold, and I was delighted when this came out in August to see large displays of the CD and vinyl at HMV, and that it was iTunes #1 R&B / Soul in the UK, and #4 in Germany. She’s touring with Steve Cradock as Musical Director, and their association goes back over twenty years to Steve Cradock’s time in Ocean Colour Scene, when she duetted on It’s A Beautiful Thing in 1998, then he produced her magnificent version of Different Drum in 1998. He produced the new album, and is now well-known for his work with Paul Weller.
Arlington Arts at Newbury is a new venue for us. It’s in countryside outside the town, west of the A34, very close to our favourite theatre, the Watermill at Bagnor. Newbury can support two excellent venues because it’s near the M4 / A34 junction, so a reasonable drive from larger towns at four points of the compass … Oxford to the north, Reading to the east, Winchester to the south and Swindon to the west. A mild quibble (which is repeated online for other shows there, I see). We booked early and chose row A. The auditorium is steeply raked seating over a flat floor as stage. After we booked they added a row of chairs in front of us as Row AA, on the flat floor, and our view between large heads was very poor. It’s a charity and I’m glad they (and the band) made the extra money, but I think they should decide at the outset whether they’re adding that row.
P.P. Arnold did a full flat out one hour and forty minutes. No disrespect to the support, which is an unenviable task, but I’m really surprised they had one. The show was very reasonable (a mere £16 each) and it was the right length. We see a lot of theatre at that length, and many music artistes have dispensed with support for similar length shows. The support means you watch half an hour of stuff you’ve never heard before, then have a half hour interval which you don’t need. I’d have preferred to just have the main act, and those who do so often take an interval, which venues may insist upon to sell drinks and ice cream. If they’d done that, it would have been a straight two hours. Because of the location, a lot of the audience have at least an hour’s drive home. A tip … Van Morrison cannily often has his band start an instrumental for 5 minutes or so, then emerges playing sax. Those 5 minutes enable the sound guys to get a balance in the room with bodies in.
It’s a well-thought out line up. The album has lots of strings, but the keyboard covers this with synth sounds, piano sounds and a Hammond organ setting. The brass: trumpet and trombone, punch out a more soulful sound than would a saxophone which tends to make stuff jazzy. An ex-Ikette knows the value of two powerful female backing singers, and they’re beautifully dressed and made-up too. OK, in an ideal world a string section would be good, but hopefully if this sells enough they can afford that next time. I couldn’t read the logo on Andy Flynn’s violin bass … he alternated between that and a Fender. It had a black scratch plate, not a white one and the name on the headstock was too long to be ‘Hofner.’ I’m sure it wasn’t because he was the first bass player I’ve seen get a really decent sound from a violin bass. Steve Cradock also alternated between electric, 6 string acoustic and 12 string acoustic guitars. He is a guitar player who plays for the song, not for the solo (as Robbie Robertson once described his own approach.) He’s the first person I’ve seen vaping on stage. The first two sudden drifts of vapour confused me- I thought it was a smoke effects machine.
P.P. Arnold does great chat and anecdotes between songs, and I won’t spoil them for future audiences by recounting any.
The First Lady of Immediate 1967
It’s very much an “early” and “right now” set. Five songs are from her first album, The First Lady of Immediate, but the opener Though It Hurts Me Badly is a remake of the song from that one, which she re-did more elaborately on the new album. It’s the first song she ever wrote too. I was thinking, more blues than soul, too.
Baby Blue is the single (virtual, I assume?) which was online ahead of the album. It was co-written by Steve Grizell and Steve Cradock. It has a shuffling rhythm, and the horns are prominent. She’s soaring. The sound is very good in the hall.
American copy. British ones are rated at £200 in Rare Record Guide.
Then we’re right back to the Immediate era with Everything’s Gonna Be Alright, her first Immediate single, and also on her first album in 1967 with its almost military opening before breaking into the classic soul stomper which it became. Drummer Tony Coote is really getting that Sixties sound.
The 1998 single
You always get an ear-worm after a concert and Different Drum is still playing in my head. They remade the 1998 single version for the new album, still with lots and lots of rhythmic strings. They managed extremely well live on stage. It was written by Mike Nesmith, who submitted it to The Monkees producers who rejected it. So it went to The Greenbriar Boys for a bluegrass version, then Linda Ronstadt with The Stone Poneys had an international hit with it in 1967. There are many versions. P.P. Arnold’s is the best whether in its 1998 incarnation or its 2019 remake.
I Believe is also from the new album, co-written with her son. Andy Flynn reproduced the bass sound too which sounds doctored on the album to me. A very good change of pace and style.
The Turning Tide, CD, 2017
Medicated Goo (Steve Winwood, Jimmy Miller) is from her “lost album” from the late 60s and early 70s, which had major Bee Gees input, though the original of Medicated Goo was produced by Eric Clapton in 1970, with Derek and The Dominoes backing her, and Eric playing guitar on her cover of the Traffic song. The “lost album” emerged a couple of years ago as The Turning Tide and should have been as prominent as the new one. It’s not my favourite track (and wasn’t on the Traffic album either) and I’d have gone for a Barry Gibb / Gibb brothers song, probably Born or Bury Me down By The River. The Turning Tide also has covers of Van Morrison’s A Brand New Day and The Rolling Stones You Can’t Always Get what You Want … basically what i’m saying is just buy the album! It worked well here, better than The Traffic version for me and I suppose it gave us a bit of 60s psych.
We saw P.P. Arnold on the Sandy Denny Tribute Show where she did the next one, I’m A Dreamer (Sandy Denny). Sandy was moving towards more soulful stuff towards the end. After that show, P.P. Arnold’s version of Take Me Away was available as a download on her website. It seems to have gone. Anyway, yes, P.P. Arnold puts that powerful soul edge on a gorgeous Sandy Denny lyric and melody. It’s on the new album.
Shoot The Dove was Paul Weller’s contribution to the new album. It’s the “assistant ear-worm” on this show. Great melody, lovely song. One to sample. It was great to hear the keyboards switch to a classic Hammond sound for the solo. Elsewhere he was getting rolling piano with one hand, synth string effects with the other.
Original single
(If You Think You’re) Groovy is by Steve Marriot and Ronnie Lane, bringing back that Small Faces connection. Their Tin Soldier was so good because of her backing vocal on it … it was one I’d been hoping for tonight as I see she was doing it in 2018 shows, but I guess you need someone for the Steve Marriot part. A lot is down to Andy Flynn on bass and Steve Coote on drums to reproduce that Small Faces sound, as Marriot and Lane wrote it for her. This one left me pondering. It really had that “organized chaos” feel which characterized the Small Faces, so you could say it was uncharacteristically messy for this band, but I think they captured the mood of it. It was the opening track on The First Lady of Immediate. While I have the songs on CD, I always hope to run into an original Immediate LP in a charity shop for a couple of quid. It is unlikely as Rare Record Guide values a copy at £400 mint, and Discogs record the highest recent price as £395.
Hold On To Your Dreams is another co-write with her son from the new album, so with a 21st century bass and rhythm sound plus chorus and horns. Paul Weller played guitar on this one on the album. I was amazed they could get that bass sound live.
You Got Me as she said, is a Northern Soul classic from the new album, giving full reign to the undiminished power of that voice.
American LP copy
Eleanor Rigby (Lennon-McCartney, but Paul claims it as just about all his) was coveredby her on Kafunta in 1968 and on the original she used strings. The Hammond organ tone is back. For the first time in the evening, Steve Cradock has strapped on a Fender Stratocaster. From our seat it was hard to see his extensive foot board with colour coded effects pedals, but we were about to experience them. Once P.P. Arnold had completed the vocal, he did his only guitar feature of the evening, and it was long and brilliant, with such a wide array of sounds and styles, and a utilisation of the tremelo arm which I haven’t seen in years. You wouldn’t think Eleanor Rigby suited to such rich soul vocals and instrumental pyrotechnics, but, hey, the song survived Vanilla Fudge’s version too. He got a huge ovation at the end of it. And I bought a Kafunta T-shirt too.
Still Trying is a Steve Cradock song from the new one with choppy piano chords. It’s a huge dramatic melodic song, with the trumpet and trombone triumphant.
The Magic Hour is Steve Cradock composition again from the new album … this really is his segment of the show. Also an anthemic and romantic song. That’s two of his songs in a row which seem custom-crafted for her voice … which this far in shows not a sign of fading.
On Toppermost I traced the history of Chip Taylor’s Angel of The Morning. I’ll repeat it: Evie Sands recorded the first version for Cameo-Parkway, only to find the company collapsing around her before it got airplay. Billie Davis covered that version in the UK. Then Merilee Rush picked up on it and got an American hit, before P.P. Arnold did the fourth and greatest version. It was also on her album Kafunta. It was considered daringly raunchy back in 1968. I was sensing the construction of the show, you save one big hit for last song and another for encores … and yes, it was off stage for the end of the main set.
Encores
We clapped for a long time. Then Andy Flynn came on with a 6-string acoustic guitar, joined by Steve Cradock on 12 string. The horns, drums and backing singers stayed offstage. She started Life Is But Nothing with just the two guitars. Later keyboards joined in … from our partially blocked view, I don’t know if he was on at the start. That’s a song from The First Lady of Immediate too, and she explained that she had never performed it live until this tour. The folky backing guitars made a major change and going more acoustic in an encore always works.
The second encore was God Only Knows from Kafunta. I’m unsure about this one, possibly because it’s one of my favourite songs of all times in the Beach Boys version and I’ve also seen The Beach Boys, and then Brian Wilson perform it live. It was a favourite closing number on solo shows for John Wetton too which I saw several times. To me Eleanor Rigby suits the hugeness of her voice better.
She finished where I came in, with The First Cut Is The Deepest. Yes, every other version fades in contrast, but I have seen her do longer versions with The Manfreds, but this band sounded much more like the Immediate original backing.
A fantastic show. I loved it as I loved the New Adventures of P.P. Arnold. There is no greater soul singer in Britain.
Stuff I was hoping for … Daltry Street, one of my favourite tracks on the new one. we never revise Toppermost lists, but this was one I was going to find a place for. Take Me Away from the Sandy Denny Tribute Show, which she posted free on her website. Beautiful Song from 2013. Then Tin Soldier of course and The Time Has Come. If you seek out the new album, note the last two tracks, neither of which she did live … I don’t think they suit live performance so well. One is a long rap treatment of Bob Dylan’s cover poem The Last Thoughts On Woody Guthrie and another is a tribute to her daughter, I’ll Always Remember You (Debbie’sSong) which is incredibly moving.
FURTHER:
Yes, I have a few P.P. Arnold 45s …
See my article on P.P. Arnold at TOPPERMOST. This was done in 2014, and part of the ground rules at Toppermost is that the writer’s selection of ten is ‘frozen in time’ otherwise it would be perpetually changing. Otherwise, I would have to squeeze in at least two from the new album.
See also these reviews:
SUPPORT: JON ALLEN
If I Can’t Have Your Love
Tightrope
When The Morning Comes
Going Home
Sweet Defeat
In Your Light
Dead Man’s Suit
Last Orders
I’ll be brief, because sadly readers of the P.P. Arnold review, like attendees at the concert, will not be terribly interested in the support. Jon Allen is a singer-songwriter with interesting lyrics and a definite knack for melody. Like most in his position he has to reproduce songs recorded with others alone with a guitar. His voice is distinctively husky which my companion disliked because it always makes her think of throat issues.
He ticked a couple of support boxes … he named every song which is important, and he told us a little about them. At one point he talked about playing Brown Eyed Girl in bars before he made albums, and I thought, ‘Ah! That’s your mistake!’ The trouble with support sets is that every song is unfamiliar. If you’re doing a support, I’d counsel putting in one well-known cover version to get the audience going. He didn’t, and Brown Eyed Girl would be a perfect example of one to do.
Apart from Dead Man’s Suit where he added harmonica and had the audience clap along, there was a sameness of tempo and register. Eight songs for support is also two too many.
Some very nice tracks in the list. Classics but not obvious.
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