On Saturday evening I went to see Roisin Murphy at the Roundhouse in Camden Town.
It’s probably best to start by mentioning something about the venue. The Roundhouse started life as a railway engine shed in 1846, but when I first moved to London many moons ago and lived in Camden Town it was a empty shell, having failed as an arts venue back in 1983. After several abortive attempts to get it going again, it was acquired in 1996 by Torquil Norman who transformed it into a performing arts venue and, in 2004, it was closed again for a £30m redevelopment to turn it into the fantastic space it is today.
Roisin started off as the singer of Moloko, but switched to a solo career in 2004. Her music has a funk feel, and the set featured songs from both of her albums, Ruby Blue and the more recent Overpowered (released in July 2007). It was a thumping gig – the session musicians she had for the night were very good indeed, and her two backing singers joined in with the fun, wearing costumes almost as skimpy as hers and dancing along as Roisin switched between strange costumes, accessorised by increasingly weird hats and sunglasses (perhaps she picked them up in the afternoon around Camden Market).
Her new single, ‘You Know Me Better’ is released on 31 March, but if you want to see her live you’re going to have to travel quite a long way, because this was the last of only two gigs in the UK this year. I’m sure tickets are still available for her 4 dates in Australia though…
From Roisin Murphy… |