Gig review: Candi Staton, Glasgow

ONE of those soulful 70s voices whose fame has been obscured by time, and yet whose hits you could probably sing several of without even realising they’re hers – You Got The Love, particularly, as reworked by The Source and Florence and The Machine – Candi Staton remains a force of nature at 73 years old.

Candi Staton

The Ferry, Glasgow

* * *

Screamed on by a well-oiled crowd, she stirred up scenes resembling the latter stages of a particularly drunken wedding – even momentarily blowing the power with the intro to Nights On Broadway.

The uncomplicatedly party-starting nature of the Alabaman’s repertoire might go some way to explaining why her star never rose as high as, say, those of Aretha Franklin or Diana Ross, both of whom she competed against for a Grammy in 1971 with her cover of Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man, as performed here with a snippet of Stand By Me dropped in for good measure (Aretha won the Grammy by the way). The kind of deeper, more meaningful instincts her 70s soul queen peers were apt to skilfully draw upon didn’t exactly evidence themselves much – but then it would maybe only have got in the way of a good time.

I’d Rather Be An Old Man’s Sweetheart (Than a Young Man’s Fool), struck a joyful note of Stax-y soul, before Staton’s disco-soul 1976 anthem Young Hearts Run Free ramped the levels of euphoria up higher still. The clincher? What else but You Got The Love, cleverly styled at the start so as to reference The Source version. She got plenty of love back in return.