A Woman’s Heart @ The Olympia Theatre, 30th August 2012
I was a mere nipper when ‘A Woman’s Heart’ compilation album was released in 1992. As one of the best selling Irish albums worldwide, Spice Girls have nothing on this girl power. While even the thought of the seats being installed in the Olympia makes me yawn, I gave it a go.
It’s a ladies secondary school, and Gemma Hayes is the ‘new girl’ being introduced to the class for the first time. Far from timidly sitting in the back row, she confidently strides through her set; just her and her guitar with a single drummer to her right. Of course, Hayes wasn’t on the album we’re here celebrating the 20th year anniversary of, but she sure fits in: relaying stories of Louis Walsh and his efforts to change her from songwriter to pop star — the two, presumed, are mutually exclusive. She dedicates Shock to my System to the suspiciously-haired one; simple smoke machines behind her giving the performance a dream-like quality. But that’s Hayes—dreamy, and winning over some fans in the, let’s say, ‘older’ demographic.
Closing her set, she relayed a story of being out with Liam Clancy as he refused anyone to his table unless they contributed something creative. How artsy of him. Hayes stepped up with Ae Fond Kiss, a Celtic ballad with no accompaniment. The Olympia was so still Dolores Keane could almost be heard shuffling around stage-side preparing to take the stage next.
Keane sashayed into the light — bewitched butterfly sleeves swaying behind her — to a big applause from the audience. She can be our high school hippy: love, peace and music. Groovy. Charming as always, she drifted through her set, including the likes of You’ll Never Be the Sun and Galway Bay, in that distinct voice. It’s as if she prepares by gurgling cigarettes and whiskey. The audience, clear die-hards, are loving it, especially when she engages in the sort of banter you could only find on a holiday camping site in some wet, dreary village on the West Coast of Ireland.
“OK, are ye right?” she prompts her guitarist, who perhaps moonlights as a Kenny Rogers look-alike. He’s right, and strums gently as Keane sings herself out with Caledonia.
The first to sit is Hermione Hennessy, her saccharine sweet voice crowning her prom queen, valedictorian—whatever—little miss perfect. She launches straight into Crowded House‘s Fall at Your Feet, giving no thought to the honeyed tones she brings to the track. It’s only now I notice the set-up: like a bohemian living room, curtains falling too heavy, a piano to the right, an assortment of guitars laying around mismatched chair. It fits. The opening of Oh Jealous Heart claims a joyed gasp from a few in the audience, as she explains the Olympia is special as it is the only place ‘their’ father, Christie Hennessy, had been recorded live. The ‘their’ of course, is Hermione and her multi-talented brother, Tim, who here is on guitar before moving on to piano for Fire and Rain. Probably the best moment of the night was the sibling duet of If You Were to Fall, with timid Tim’s vocal hauntingly reminiscent of his late father.
Sharon Shannon is that one girl in class that always smiles and is just constantly happy. You know the sort. She delivers a jaunty set of reels from a piper, breakneck trad and Duo in G, manipulating the accordion and tin whistle with the ease I’d run a roller up a wall. Her guitarist Jim Murray never misses a beat, the two keeping to the rhythm of Shannon’s shuffling foot—adorned in sky-scraper heels so alarming, an audience member asks her where she bought them.
Class clown Mary Coughlan strolls on to sultry lights and a new jazz set-up, a cello and saxophone joining her on stage. It‘s straight into Meet Me Where They Play The Blues, Coughlan melancholic with the bluesy sentiment of dramatics, but hitting the notes all the same. Whereas Sharon’s shoes were bordering on disabling, Coughlan immediately takes hers off—a perfect metaphor for the constant interchanging of personalities following through A Woman’s Heart—who needs my high school? I Want to be Seduced borders on ‘your-Mum-telling-you-about-the-night-you-were-conceived’, but me, I’m just a kid. The audience lap it up, as Coughlan plays around with it. A powerful rendition of I Can’t Make You Love Me and I’d Rather Go Blind sees her off for the time being.
Finally, we have the rebellious one who smokes in the toilets, Eleanor McEvoy. Beating her guitar strings up, she dedicates Deliver Me from What You Do to the Vatican—risqué, considering the demographic that sat before her. “I never know if that will get an applause in this country,” she says afterwards, perhaps sensing mild discomfort in the room. While I may have missed the boat with these ladies, Non Smoking Single Female—a song, she says, inspired by a personal ad she saw in the Farmers Journal—gets a smile. Finishing up with True Colours, dedicated to Amy Winehouse, it’s time for the ‘girdles’ to have a bit of a gossip during lunch time.
Only A Woman’s Heart is a vocal relay, each taking a verse, while Come a Long Way brought out the inner messer of Coughlan, bouncing around the stage like a literal schoolgirl. They have indeed come a long way from that initial release 20 years ago. Still drawing the audience, still hitting the notes, still showing the likes of cynical little me that trad Irish ladies can rock it with the best of them.
“Ah you’d miss the Blacks [sisters Mary and Frances],” said one lady as we left the theatre. You can’t miss what you never had, says I. Keep it going ladies.
A Woman’s Heart Photo Gallery
Photos: Owen Humphreys
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