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from The Press by Charles Hutchinson PAUL Hudson and his fellow weathermen Cassandras would have had you raising the white flag at Monday’s show of snow, but if Scottish Sharleen could make it to Harrogate, so could the locals. And no, not everyone in Harrogate drives a 4x4. Spiteri looked surprised, touched even, that so many had defied the snowstorm, buoying her even more to make light of her cold, albeit with tissues at hand. After two decades of fronting the super-slick Texas, Spiteri has gone back to the past for her solo future, reactivating Memphis soul, Fifties’ rock’n’roll and doo-wop to live her dream of “making a Nancy Sinatra record”: last summer’s Melody. You could argue that the retro dancefloor is getting mighty crowded, with Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Adele and Sophie Ellis-Bextor already reserving their handbag space. However, Spiteri, like fellow Scot Annie Lennox, is older, sharper, feistier and fabulous on the audience banter as she leads her dark-suited soul revue band and evokes Dusty, Cilla, Nancy et al in her little black number. Austin Powers would have loved it: the surging horns; the fun Sharleen had with Nancy’s These Boots Are Made For Walking; the rockabilly revamp of I Don't Want A Lover; the bossa-nova cover of The Clash's Should I Stay Or Should I Go; the bittersweet Bacharach-David-style balladry of All The Time I Cried; the feline strut and teasing to rival Felicity Shagwell. By now in snow-melting red, she conquered River Deep, Mountain High: nothing too big for this re-born soul queen. |