Olivia put on a delightful show at the Royal Albert Hall on Wednesday 13th March 2013. Her voice was in great from, light and sparkling as she captivated the audience. Many of the British audience will have had fond memories of here early UK success in the 1970s before she moved to the US with the Have You Never Been Mellow album in 1975. This show had slightly a different feel and songs from her US shows, and her voice was in fine form, indeed she sounded better to me than when I last saw her in the US over five years ago.
Thanks to Kay, Eddie, and Stephen for the lovely photos
Olivia's last concert in London was with her Totally Hot tour in 1978, so this was the first chance for over 30 years to hear her in London.
Olivia talked about her early career when she was in London with Pat Carroll, and how they loved to sing songs live Julie London's Cry Me A River in some of the city's clubs and bars, where they were a double act. Olivia has since recorded this on the Indigo album (Portraits in the US) They even tried taking up smoking to darken their voices a little to get the right tone colour ;)
Favourites from Olivia's hit movies Grease and Xanadu featured with many of the songs from her long and successful singing career, as well as a couple of unusual twists for her UK audience.
Songs:
Pearls on a Chain
What Is Life?
Have You Never Been Mellow
A Little More Love
If Not For You
Banks of the Ohio
Let Me Be There
If You Love Me Let Me Know
Country Roads
Jolene
Xanadu
Magic
Suddenly
Long Live Love
Angel Eyes
Waterloo
Physical
Make A Move On Me
Sam
Cry Me A River
Don't Cut Me Down
Not Gonna Give Into To It
You're The One That I Want
Hopelessly Devoted To You
Summer Nights
We Go Together
encore:
Grace and Gratitude
I Honestly Love You
thanks to Helen for ths song list
Olivia sang Long Live Love in a hat-tip to her Eurovision entry in 1974, along with the song that she would have preferred to take to Eurovision, Angel Eyes. Both of these can be found on her 1974 album Long Live Love. Abba won the 1974 contest with Waterloo, and Olivia treated he London audience to a lovely version of ABBA's chart-topping song.
All in all it was a real treat, welcome back to London, Olivia, and here's hoping the gap to the next London concert will be shorter!
