BEVERLEY Knight celebrated the songs of Steve Wonder at the BIC in Bournemouth last night, along with the Leo Green Orchestra, to pay homage to one of the greatest songwriters of modern times. This tour followed a special concert recorded for BBC Radio 2’s ‘Friday Night is Music Night’ series at The London Palladium earlier in the year.
Knight’s vocals were powerful, soulful and her impressive performance was relentlessly high energy and impactful. She didn’t just sound amazing, the sassy 46 year- old looked stunning in a skin- tight sequined jumpsuit and really commanded her place on the stage. Surprisingly, the audience took a while to warm up but when they finally did they were swept off their feet and Knight’s infectious energy kept them there!
The Wolverhampton-born singer did great justice to Stevie Wonder’s varied mix of hits. Knight launched the show with ‘Superstition’ and ‘Living for the city’. She moved on to ‘He’s Misstra Know-it-all’ which she described as “a song from Stevie Wonder’s purple period, when he was writing song after song.”
The pace slowed and the audience were captivated with the emotive renditions of ‘Lately’ and ‘Yester Me, Yesterday You, Yesterday’.
“A very special song to me, because I walked down the aisle to it” is how the artist introduced ‘Do I Do’
“The Stevie train ain’t stopping!” the soul Queen enthused as the hits continued; ‘Don’t worry about a thing’, ‘For once in my life’, ‘Isn’t she lovely’, ‘Ribbon in the Sky’ and ‘Uptight (Everything’s alright)’, amongst others.
Eventually Knight told the audience, “I am celebrating my 25th year in music. I am so proud to be in the greatest time of my life!” The talented performer then treated the audience to a few of her own hits such as ‘Greatest Day’, ‘Keep this Fire Burning’ and ‘Shoulda Woulda Coulda’ as well as a track from her new album BK25, to be released on November 8.
It was evident that the ultra- impressive 20- piece band supporting Knight were having huge amounts of fun in their performances and certainly added much to the evening’s performance.
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