#voxcollective

Three queens and a King prove a winning hand...

Carole King’s Tapestry album has been a late-night-bedroom favourite of the loved-up and the lovelorn ever since it came out, so the dim-lit, intimate basement at Pizza Express Holborn was ideal for this tribute show from Katrin Yr’s Vox Collective.

Getting the near-capacity Sunday night crowd in the mood, Glenn Callaghan on piano, Dion Rushe on guitar and Ed Broad on percussion began the punchy opening groove of I Feel The Earth Move, heralding the entry of Kat on gutsy lead vocal, flanked by Natalie Palmer and Bryony Purdue adding harmonies and punchy counterpoint. After a couple of outings each for chunky Telecaster and fluid piano, all three joined together to lead an initially hesitant (British reserve, don’cher know?) crowd choir to close.

It’s Too Late (a track that set the template for 70s West Coast romantic ballads) saw Natalie’s silky lead backed by lovely wordless harmonies as well as chiming piano and staccato discursive guitar, while Bryony’s rich vibrato took the lead on the emotional So Far Away. The mystical lyric and lyrical piano of Tapestry featured each singer taking a verse in turn, while the others harmonised with lush hums and “oohs”, the gentle lilt building through a final key change to a gooseflesh-raising unison close.

Appropriately for a Sunday, the trio took us to church first with Way Over Yonder’s gospel-tinged bluesy soul (with more stirring unison passages) and the impressively full-choir-effect joyous vibe of Where You Lead, helped by a full-on handclap-and-call-and-response contribution from the now better-lubricated audience. The first set closed with the classic New York show tune feel of Beautiful, Bryony leading out with a ballsy Broadway belt.

Set two opened with a heart-melting rendition of Will You Love Me Tomorrow: slow and gentle like the album version with the additional charm of three-part harmonies from the off as well as fine piano with jazz flourishes, followed by Bryony taking powerful, passionate point on the introspective ballad Home Again.

Although Tapestry was the focus it’d be hard to ignore Carole King’s phenomenal contribution to pop across the decades so it was only fair to include a neat medley of “Blimey-she-wrote-that-as-well?” hits, with Kat fronting the smoky reverie of Up On The Roof; Nat and then Bryony taking their turns on bobby soxer faves Take Good Care Of My Baby and It Might As Well Rain Until September; Kat encouraging diner participation in I’m Into Something Good and Nat (backed by cracking rock’n’roll piano) closing with One Fine Day.

Glenn’s rollicking barrelhouse piano underpinned the bluesy boogie of Smackwater Jack that also included a twangsome Tele excursion from Dion with unexpectedly jazzy progression thrown in, before another iconic favourite You’ve Got A Friend saw the artists take a back seat as the (by now fully confident) house took on a verse and chorus on their own, including someone handling operatically high harmonies!

Emotions reached a peak as Kat introduced the final song of the set, welling up a little recounting the story of a man in floods of tears (in a good way) at their last rendition of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman: an understandable reaction, with Kat’s gritty oomph backed by chill-inducing “Ah-ooh”s from Nat and Bryony, and thrilling three-part harmonies in the chorus. A little encouragement drew the band back for another burst of bubblegum pop with The Loco-Motion, everyone rising to their feet for a rousing clap-and-singalong finale.

VOX Collective pop Plunger’s Madonna cherry …

… a quick straw poll at Plunger Towers revealed only one Madonna CD owner present, so we really did head down to XOYO Like A Virgin, for our first evening of live Madge courtesy of VOX Collective.

And it was certainly breathtaking, from the opening undulating string lines of Vogue to the thrilling closing harmonies of like a prayer.

A packed dancefloor bopped and sang along to upbeat favourites like Borderline, La Isla Bonita (embarrassing fact: somehow Plunger instantly recognised the track’s isolated guitar intro during soundcheck) Cherish and Holiday, with particular terrace chant favourites being Papa Don’t Preach and the girls-only-now-the-boys-now altogether participation-fest Like A Virgin.

From its long-gone salad days (or rather nights) in City Ale & Wine, Minsters and Minories, and more recent exposure to Umphrey’s McGee, the dancier anthems got our bodies moving to the music: Into The Groove, Express Yourself, and Material Girl.

A super tight band and a very stylish string quartet gave slick backing to the excellent voices of Katrin Yr, Rachel Clark and Simone Kaye (whether intentionally or not) doing a great job of representing period-specific Madonnas visually as well as vocally.

A fun night: only the worst music snob could knock classic pop professionally rendered.