Having reviewed Stevie Wonder at the BST Hyde Park Festival a few days prior, Kew the Music was an interesting change of pace for this writer. Perhaps think of Kew the Music as BST‘s less frenetic, more environmentally conscious, and bougier younger brother. Billed as a series of picnic concerts, Kew the Music takes place each year over a week in July with different headline acts each night. For the inaugural night of the 2019 season, the headline slot was shared between Billy Ocean and Beverley Knight.
Having been disappointed with patchy sound at BST, the sound in the luscious Royal Botanic Gardens was surprisingly robust (if not exceptional). Speakers around the gardens, as well as a video screen near the back, meant that those distant from the stage were not disadvantaged.
After a support set from phenomenal saxophonist Yolanda Brown (which this writer sadly missed), Trinidadian-British soul star Billy Ocean took to the stage. Ocean can certainly join the likes of Gladys Knight, Mavis Staples, and Stevie Wonder as an artist still capable of pulling out a strong set. In retrospect, his music and performance was perfect for this balmy summer evening: pitch-perfect soulful vocals, engaging hooks tinged with ’80s kitsch, and danceable grooves. Wheeling through the likes of ‘Love Really Hurts Without You’, ‘When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going’, ‘Caribbean Queen’, and ‘Red Light Spells Danger’, Ocean was charismatic and vocally on-point. ‘Will you get into my car?’ Ocean asked, cueing his signature song ‘Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car’.
Predictably, Beverley Knight was very strong too. Underscored by her sell-out show at the Royal Festival Hall last May, Knight is at the top of her game. Somewhat endearingly, she mentioned looking forward to another twenty-five years in music. Gauging audience appetites for the uptempo material, her set was stripped of all ballads with the exception of the mid-tempo ‘Shoulda Woulda Coulda’. She launched into ‘Get Up!’ and followed with the likes of ‘Soul Survivor’, ‘Greatest Day’, and her soulful take on Robyn’s ‘Keep This Fire Burning’. I do slightly lament the inclusion of ‘I’m Every Woman’ into her regular set now (engulfed by audience karaoke), but Knight is never complacent in her delivery. ‘Black Butta’, written by Knight and Guy Chambers, was a storm of vocal firepower.
(Image taken from The Ticket Factory website)
