Gig review: Duffy

Published on Wednesday 3 December 2008 19:42

DUFFY CARLING ACADEMY, GLASGOW

HALFWAY through this show, Bangor-born Aimee Duffy (although she prefers to go by just her surname) seemed to be in conversation with a fan by the crush barrier. The rest of the hall heard only one side of it, but that included Duffy saying: "I'm not a 60s singer. Don't believe it. I'm very contemporary".

Whatever else was said, nobody was buying that for a minute. The white minidressed Duffy and her slow hand-jiving backing singers were dressed like molls in a Michael Caine film, while her entire brand sets her up as Dusty Springfield reincarnate.

She might protest too much, but at least these associations mean we're not thinking about Amy Winehouse. Post-Winehouse, of course, a barrage of young women with a husky warble and a soupon of perceived attitude have been thrust on the public, but Duffy deserves higher regard than most. Her career is the result of a carefully marketed image and her trembling, girlish vocal is every bit an acquired taste as Winehouse's style. But at least Duffy has some honest-to-goodness fine pop songs in her repertoire.

Backed by a six-piece band and string quartet, she managed a restrained smoulder on stand-out tracks like Mercy, Warwick Avenue and Distant Dreamer (the latter lent further kudos by Bernard Butler's co-writing credit), while Delayed Devotion was so awash with synthetic 80s soul it could have been written for Alexander O'Neal. So it seems she was right: Duffy's not just a 60s singer, after all.