Sharleen Spiteri
Liverpool Summer Pops: The Melody Tour
Liverpool Echo Arena
Sunday, July 12
Dressed in blue denim and brown boots, Sharleen Spiteri took the stage with a smile and a wave, broke into a set that was destined to rock the Arena. Mixing new songs from her excellent debut solo album, Melody, such as All The Times I Cried, It Was You and Stop, I Don’t Love You Anymore with her far more familiar work with Texas, Spiteri kept the atmosphere up brilliantly with some inter-song interaction with a surprisingly sparse audience, on a night when The Eagles were performing just up the road in Manchester, who lapped up everything she did.
Of course it was the big hitters that most were there for and the “Voice Of Texas” didn’t disappoint, belting out the fabulous In Demand and Black Eyed Boy before upping the tempo with Halo, Summer Son, Inner Smile and a countrified version of I Don’t Want A Lover amongst others.
With a stripped down stage design that made the arena seem more like an intimate Working Man’s Club, the star of the show sang for an hour and twenty minutes, including a tremendous cover version of Nancy Sinatra’ hit, These Boots Were Made For Walking halfway through, though it was the encore version of The Clash’s Should I Stay Or Should I Go and a raucously good version of Ike & Tina Turner’s River Deep, Mountain High that showed the true depth and range of the singer’s vocal dexterity.
A bit short, perhaps, but Sharleen Spiteri can truly say that she delivers a show that packs a punch and one that will live long in the memory.
break the rules as I see fit.” - Chris High 2003.