Calgary Jubilee Auditorium concert
By Sharon Stott
Sleek, stylized, surgical.
Olivia Newton-John's early concert Wednesday night at the Jubilee Auditorium was all these things. Clad in a shimmering pale blue satin pant outfit sparkling with rhinestone studs, Olivia came on stage and took control, both of the band and audience.
This singer is professional. Every movement, every gesture, every intonation is carefully selected and precisely presented.
This is the way it must be. For the thing about Olivia's songs is that, sung one after the other, they all begin to sound the same. So in concert with Olivia, presentation counts.
Give Olivia an "A" for Wednesday.
She has developed a movement for every phrase in every passage and every pause. They are deliberate, yes, but delivered with such a sophistication of style, even a slithered slouch at the end of a song is sympatico with the sound.
Olivia sang many of her hits for Calgary's appreciative audience. She voiced them with the surety of experience. The voice is usually on, but sometimes the ethereal effect becomes a strained thinness and lyrics were lost.
Backed by a seven-piece band and vocal trio, the songs-tress sounded successful. Only once did this waver. Sound troubles erupted at various points throughout the evening, with a shrieking feed-back stabbing the music. Olivia was not pleased.
Such problems make for uneasy musicians, although the band handled it well. They were competent, controlled.
In a tropical plant-studded set, singing mostly wistful love ballads, looking deliciously beautiful, Olivia should have been able to carry the adjectives sensuous and soulful. Not so. There was no emoting, not believable anyway.
At one point in the evening, Olivia announced she was going to dedicate a song to all the newborn babies, "even Cher Bono's baby that has no idea what is in store for it." A few hesitant chuckles came from the audience and Olivia reassured them: "No offence."
Announcing another song. she told the audience: "If you feel like singing - don't."
Calgary loved Olivia and gave her a standing ovation.
She said if she made it to the big time she hoped all that would have to appear on a billboard would be a hyphen and people would know who it represented.
Olivia Newton-John will be successful. And the hyphen will be ice white.
The opening act was Bruce Murray. Now to win the coveted slot of warm-up for the Olivia Newton-John tour, logic says this singer must be good.
Wednesday wasn't logical. Once again an "A"- this time to the packaging people of Murray. Coral shirt open to mid-chest, two sliver neck-laces, beige suit with leather inlays, hair carefully styled. Understandably, Murray was nervous. His mouth was dry and he shared his feelings with the audience, which gave him a classy note.
Too bad it did not carry over into his music. Basically he sounded like a very nice young man that might be able to sing. But the Calgary audience didn't know, and won't know, until Murray sits down and decides on the sound that is right for him.
He liked the song The Bitter They Are, The Harder They Fall, and has recorded it. It was all right, enjoyable in fact, except when lyrics were lost.
The back-up band was supportive - in fact, many times saved him. Applause to the drummer. His jazz and rock riffs were delivered with authority and imagination but at no time infringed on the singer's territory.
But the only time Murray and, consequently the audience, felt comfortable was when he belted out a bit of ragtime. Calgary enjoyed it and so did he.
Until the setting of style and development of sound, Murray is going to be sadly tagged the brother of you-know-who.
"IN THE BLOOD" -"Music," says Olivia Newton-John, "is just in my Welsh blood." Ms. Newton-John, whose grandfather was a Nobel Prize physicist (Max Born), will be in Calgary Wednesday to let her blood stir up that of her many fans in two shows, at 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets for the Jubilee Auditorium concert are available at the usual outlets.
