Gladys Knight Farewell Tour | Riverside Theatre | 19th March 2024 | ★ ★ ★ ½
Gladys Knight, dubbed the Empress of Soul, is taking her final bows as she takes her Farewell Tour around Australia showcasing decades of hits that span many different genres.
The tour’s Australian run began on Tuesday night at Perth’s Riverside Theatre . First up local musician Howie Morgan entertained the crowd with his original songs and a selection of well known covers including James Taylor’s You’ve Got a Friend and Bill Wither’s Lovely Day.
Knight was backed by a six piece band that included a drummer and a percussionist, two keyboard players and two guitarists. She was joined on stage by three backing singers who oddly performed most of the show sitting down, which made it feel very sedate.
Just weeks away from her 80th birthday Knight is bidding farewell to life on the road, so this was for many in the audience the first and last chance to see a singer whose career has spanned seven decades.
While Gladys Knight began her career on the Motown label alongside Diana Ross and The Supremes, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Smokie Robinson and The Temptations. Her greatest run of success came in the 1970’s singing smooth ballads and disco soul. In the 1980’s she embraced funk sounds and later recorded standards, jazz and gospel.
As the show began Knight’s voice was lost in the mix of a loud band and powerful backing singers. It was clear watching that she singing her heart out, and could certainly hold a note for an impressive amount of time, but from our viewpoint it was hard to hear the famous singer amongst all that was sonically going on around her.
Dressed in a three-quarter length black jacket, crisp white shirt and teetering on stiletto the singer spent the show heading from one side of the stage to the other, having short exchanges with nearby audience members, sharing that ‘loves the church thang’, and ‘that love is the most importance force in the world.’
But you got the impression she could have been in any city, and maybe she wasn’t even sure where tonight’s tour schedule had taken her. It felt like this was yet another show, in a long line of shows, slowly winding down to it’s finale. Singing to a half full theatre on a Tuesday night in Perth wasn’t taking Gladys Knight out of a high.
The song selection included her 1969 hit The Nitty Gritty, which morphed into The Jacksons’ late 70’s disco hit Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) and 1961’s Every Beat of My Heart was also included.
Love Overboard, a song written for Knight by Atlantic Star’s Reggie Calloway provided a slice of late 80’s funk groove. Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me was warmly welcomed by the crowd.
A rendition of the Luther Vandross classic Never Enough was filled with energy as the trio of backing singers joined Knight centre stage, and there was swooning and awe as the singer launched into Barbara Streisand’s The Way We Were.
Neither One of Us (Wants to be the First to Say Goodbye) also got cheers of enthusiasm from the crowd, and I Heard It Through the Grapevine was recognisable from the moment the first notes were struck.
The show ended with what is potentially the song most associated with Knight, Midnight Train to Georgia. A faster version than expected, the train had build up some steam and we were heading off fast. As Knight sang the song’s refrain of “I’ve got to go”, she took her final bows and departed.
Amazing career, undisputable talent, muddled show.
Graeme Watson
