Julia Fordham at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. November 2014. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Virtually every artist that goes upon stage is highly regarded by those that wait patiently for their appearance in the local area. They are looked upon with a mixture of awe, the hope of being entertained and taken away from the lives the audiences have found themselves in but few seem as admired and longed for than Julia Fordham appeared to be by the crowd that filled the Epstein Theatre on a shivery and pitch black November night in Liverpool.
It has been 25 years since the singer with a voice like smooth tasting chocolate being lovingly poured from a delicate chalice released her album Porcelain onto the streets of the U.K. a quarter of a century has gone by since, so much has changed and yet in a theatre in which hundreds of hearts beat with the same intensity as an amateur marathon runner crossing the finishing line ahead of Mo Farrah and with a breath so baited it could have caught an above quota catch of fish in its vocal cords with the same simplicity as reading a book, Julia Fordham came out from beyond the shadows and rolled back the years with grace and style.
With a set split into two halves, it seemed that the audience were going to have the choice of being emotionally challenged, their hearts bursting with expectation and vocally inspired giddy grief twice.
There is no other way to describe Ms. Fordham’s vocals as anything other than sheer beauty. To listen to tracks such as Lock & Key, Did I Happen To Mention, Manhattan Skyline, the splendour of Girlfriend, Island and the album’s title track Porcelain being performed is enough to make your way to Tibet, find a follower of the Dali Lama and whisper down their ears with much solemnity that you understand what they mean.
The evening was not all about celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the album Porcelain; it felt like a night in which to rejoice in the return of Ms. Fordham back to Liverpool. To observe this unfortunately too rare an occurrence, the audience were treated to other songs such as Under The Rainbow, Happy Ever After, the stunning (Love Moves In) Mysterious Ways, a rather special and thrilling version of the Beatles track Eleanor Rigby before finishing off with the song Loving You.
Julia Fordham doesn’t come around all that often, for those that made their way to the Epstein Theatre to see her, perhaps for the first time in 25 years, they were not disappointed or suffer from any type of blues at all. This was music of the highest order possible.
Ian D. Hall