Shaznay Lewis - Pages

Wonderful gig. Like someone else said here she was nervous at the start which makes sense doing her first ever solo show but like after 2 songs she clearly felt the love and just enjoyed it. The songs all blend really well together and Tears to the Floor is the ONE. I'd day Bruises is a big grower too with beautiful lyrics. She told the crowd she wrote it in the bath!

I'm curious if she'll do a mini tour with intimate venues...
 
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Excellent show last night agreed! I knew it would be, but it was even better than I imagined. The crowd definitely elevated the whole thing...im sure she loved that!

What All Saints song did someone at the front ask her if she would do? She said no, as it had a whole "routine"
 
In the midst of leading an enthusiastic singalong to an old favourite in a densely packed Jazz Café, Shaznay Lewis glanced up from the small stage to the club’s balcony and waved with delighted recognition: “Hi, Mummy!”

There was a warm sense of being amongst friends and family as the leader of 1990’s girl group phenomenon All Saints made her very belated solo live debut. “It’s my first show ever in my whole career by myself,” the 48-year-old Lewis declared with nervous delight, smiling and waving as she recognised individuals in the crowd. “I’m really touched that you guys have come out on a wet Tuesday night.”

The intimate 450-capacity Camden venue seemed an unusual place to find this former icon of the Britpop era. Rather than representing Shaznay going Jazznay, it appeared to have been chosen as a safe space for Lewis to tentatively venture out of her group comfort zone. There was always a sense of sophisticated R’n’B rhythms, harmony and songcraft underpinning All Saints trip hoppy pop, and those musical elements have been pushed to the fore on Lewis’s forthcoming solo album, Pages, released on Friday.

A four-piece band (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards) locked tight into an intricate modern soul sound that aspired to the expansive funk of late era Temptations blended with the shuffling Bristol grooves of Massive Attack. Lewis shared vocal duties with two accomplished backing singers (one male, one female), often with a call and response quality, suggesting she remains more comfortable amidst the vocal democracy of harmony singing than commanding the solo spotlight. Lewis has a wide vocal range, shifting from fulsome alto to piercing falsetto, but I am not convinced she has the nuanced flow and smooth control to really shine as a solo singer.

What she does have are songwriting skills, and so a set that largely comprised unfamiliar new songs about tough love and survival was easy to engage with. She was dressed to impress in a fabulously oversized black suit with superhero scale shoulders, accessorised by earrings that could have doubled as hula hoops. It was a long way from the scruffy combat cool of All Saints in their glory days, and I suppose that was the point.

Lewis initially launched a rather half-hearted solo career back in 2004 and has subsequently operated as a backroom songwriter for others (such as Westlife and Little Mix) whilst participating in a series of All Saints reunions that never really caught fire. It seems to have taken her two decades to find the confidence to press forward solo, and while she has left it late, songs as strong as Missiles, Tears to the Floor and Pick You Up deserve a chance to be heard.

She did not turn her back on past triumphs, as some solo artists do. “It would be rude of me not to do a few songs from my girls,” she announced to delighted cheers. Inserting a quartet of All Saints biggest hits amidst her new songs bumped up the enthusiasm of an already sympathetic audience to near hysterical levels. The middle-aged crowd chanted their way through the downbeat spoken word intro to Never Ever like teenagers at a pop party. “Melanie’s here,” announced Lewis, to a huge roar. Her All Saints’ bandmate Mel Blatt didn’t suddenly pop up on stage, but it was nice to think of her singing gamely along amidst the crowd of friends, family and fans as Lewis concluded with a version of Pure Shores that reached Last Night At The Proms magnitude.
 
An intimate and emotional voice message, it sits in line with Taylor’s own assured ideals whilst also acting as a thematic introduction to the core of Pages. “I said to him [Hugo], ‘I feel like I want somebody to do a short talking part, do you know anybody?’ He said, ‘Rebecca will be perfect on this,’” she explains.
Poor Nicole...
 
Does she have any signings planned in the release week? I want her to get all the sales she can because she fucking deserves it!

None planned as yet. Banquet have 11 signed copies left though.

The only promo I've seen is that she's on James Martin's Saturday Morning on ITV1, Saturday (9:30-11:40).
 

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