At one point during this concert at the Royal Albert Hall, English soul singer Joss Stone admitted her nervousness about booking this daunting venue. Perhaps Stone, who tours more heavily across the US and South America, underestimated the level of support from within her native Britain – not unfairly, given the flack she used to receive from our press. Well, she sold out the show – so kudos to her. Stone always puts on a great set, but this felt like a concert appearance with a vengeance, with white-hot passion and potent, note-bending vocals from Stone.
Her 2023 ’20 Years of Soul’ tour, which included a stop at the London Palladium, was recently archived on a live album. Refreshingly, this outing saw a largely different mix of songs and styles, beginning with ‘Star’ from her eclectic Water For Your Soul album. Excitingly, the set drew noticeably from The Soul Sessions Vol. 2 (the sequel to her debut) with covers of Womack and Womack’s ‘Teardrops’ and a growling take on The Chi Lites’ ‘(For God’s Sake) Give More Power to the People’.
Stone has grown up on the stage, performing since she was 13. Her stage shtick – for example, turning the irrepressible ‘Super Duper Love’ into an audience singalong – is backed by such natural presence and charisma that it never feels trite. I could have lived without the disco medley – a nod to her daughter’s love of the genre – though it certainly got the audience on their feet and gave her backing singers the chance to let off some vocal fireworks.
It was a set punctuated with choice collaborations. She invited her earthy-voiced support act Stephen Wilson Jr to sing their co-write ‘Even the Sky’ and waited until her first encore number to bring out the Change+Check Choir and the London International Gospel Choir for a moving performance of breast cancer charity single ‘Golden’ (bookended with Stone’s advice that audience members take the time to “feel your boobs”).
Stone was at her most extraordinary on ‘Mr, Wankerman’, her middle finger to a former lover, which segued into the Broken Bells’ ‘The High Road’. The performance’s handbanging climax could rank among her greatest on-stage moments. After exploring some of these deeper cuts, she hit the audience with the one-two punch of ‘You Had Me’ and ‘Fell in a Love with a Boy’, and closed with ‘Right to be Wrong’. In this triumphant homecoming, Stone proved she’s not just still in the game, but very much at the top of it.
