Live Review

Duffy – Ruby Lounge, Manchester

• 29th Feb 2008

Duffy graced the Ruby Lounge, Manchester with her presence on Friday night. In fact she brought the house down! Finding words to describe her amount of talent may actually be impossible but here goes…

With a name like Duffy its hard not to attach sixties inspired connotations straight away. Listen to her music and they are confirmed immediately.

Amy Winehouses’s shenanigans have created a gap in the charts for another truly amazing and inspiring vocalist who can bring back what British music has been missing since the sixties. Yes Kate Nash we all understand that female is not a genre but you still only slightly fill a section of that gap with your moody ‘nearly fall off your seat’ piano pop. Duffy however OVERFILLS the gap. She can be a genre all on her own.

Duffy has played her cards right by releasing Rockferry first, to give her new found audience a taste of her gorgeous music and to warm them up for what she’s all about. Then following on by releasing the fiercely seductive Mercy, a song that most people may have only known her by from the gig on Friday.

The Ruby Lounge was the perfect atmosphere for her, up close and personal. Whilst waiting for her, Northern Soul deejay’s spun their records, resulting in that old Twisted Wheel ambience. Her infamous Northern Soul dancers from her music video were also there too showing some special moves.

She began with Rockferry, then Warwick Avenue, which was nothing short of fantastic. She followed with Serious, Stepping Stone and Honey and Syrup. All tracks had sixties vibes just like her latest release, perfectly complementing her soulful, voice. Hang on too long was her girl power track which had a very similar bass line to ‘Heard it through the Grapevine’ about (in her words) ‘when life gets hard ‘f**k it, basically!’

If every man in that room wasn’t in love with her already, they certainly were when they left. Never has a gig been so quiet and contained, listening to her every word in order not to miss her beautiful song lyrics, especially during Honey and Syrup. Everybody was in awe of her and quite rightly so.

She finished her set with the great Mercy. Just what everyone had been waiting for. Then came back on to sing Distant Dreamer, which really got me…right where it hurts! How can she capture an audience like she does? Why is she this good? She was clearly born in the wrong era, however I, and I am sure the rest of everybody else who was there is bloody well glad she was born when she was, to give us the chance to listen to her sweetness.

Not only is she a class performer, she’s generous too! Giving everybody who went to her gig a free download of Breaking My Own Heart. It doesn’t get much better than that!