Celeste, Glasgow review: 'uncompromising'
This short but highly distinctive performance from Celeste left her audience wanting more, writes David Pollock
Celeste, Saint Luke’s, Glasgow ★★★★
“I hope you like this little set-up,” said Celeste, during this final show of her “little tour”. She stood on a small podium in the midst of the crowd throughout, picked out by the lights of her audience’s phone cameras, a memorably exposed and intimate arrangement.
Her words bore a sense of almost enforced modesty - that this wasn’t some megastar trying to act down-to-earth, but instead a singer who was genuinely working hard to make a connection with songs from her just-released second album, Woman of Faces.
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Returning almost five years and one reportedly difficult recording period on from her number one debut Not Your Muse, Celeste is, of course, very famous; she soundtracked the 2020 John Lewis Christmas ad and has Brit and BBC Introducing and Sound Of award wins alongside Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
In this context, a singing and songwriting talent with such a CV trying hard to make an impression at this “outstore” gig for local record shop Assai made for a unique evening.
Backed by a string trio on stage and the sound of an unseen piano, the Brighton-raised singer began with When Dreams Are Made Of Gold, a song whose uncompromising, torch-singing tone was dark and almost mournful, then moved on to the new album’s affirmative finale, This is Who I Am. Surely she must be up for a Bond movie song if the franchise ever returns; her voice bears the power of Amy Winehouse, the countryish quiver of Portishead’s Beth Gibbons and the sheer unbowed personality of Shirley Bassey.
After just ten songs, including the foot-stamping Everyday, the new album’s confident title track and the finale Strange’s slowly revealed drama, which inspired the audience to join in at the end, we were left wanting more. Her next concerts definitely won’t be little.
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