Woman Chatty
In Dublin foror her comeback tour, Adele proves a ...
Hello... Realistically, what other song could Adele have chosen to open her first Irish show in five years? At precisely eight o’clock, the 27-year-old multi-millionaire mother-of-one emerged slowly on a platform from beneath the stage already singing her comeback single.
Multicoloured spangles twinkled on her black backless dress as she belted out the torch song. On a giant angled screen, a monochrome film of her eyes seemed to stare at her and us as she sang. This was exchanged for aerial views of Dublin during Hometown Glory, eliciting roars of approval on recognition. After One
And Only, she spoke for the first time, telling us how she had spent the two days off between her two Belfast shows and Friday and Saturday’s 3Arena concerts.
‘I took my little boy to your Natural History Museum. I was told later people in Dublin call it the Dead Zoo.’ Not for the last time loud laughter erupted.
We heard how she had a ‘lovely’ massage ‘which I don’t normally like... I don’t like people touching me’.
She divulged her make-up secrets: ‘I look nothing like this. I can walk around Asda and nobody recognises me. The make-up person has put so much powder on my face, I don’t think I’ll ever see the normal me again.’
In fact, in a show of 105 minutes she spoke for almost 20 of them.
The profile of the audience ranged from seven to 70, and some sensibilities might have been bruised by the swear words that occasionally speckled her easy-flowing banter. However, few griped as she read the messages on the posters lovingly hand-made, or greeted the fan who claimed to have been to all of her Irish shows since 2008. It turned out to be Patrick James who won The Voice of Ireland in 2015. He soaked up the audience’s applause when a spotlight picked him out; it was, unfortunately one of the few times he has been back in one since the heady days of April last year.
Rumour Has It upped the tempo. The 21 musicians accompanying her immaculately reproduced the sound of the studio recording as they did throughout the night in unobtrusive fashion.
The stage was bathed in blood-red light for Skyfall, the best Bond theme since Live
And Let Die. Sorry, Sam Smith, your effort ranks ahead of Madonna and below Duran Duran, but no higher.
She popped from the main stage to a smaller one for an acoustic set with five of her musicians. The stripped-down approach particularly suited Don’t You Remember and Send My Love (To Your New Lover). Her cover of Bob Dylan’s
Make You Feel My Love, which, she admitted, put her on the musical map, and
Sweetest Devotion, touchingly dedicated to her son and mothers everywhere, elicited heartfelt cheers. She seemed to pour every ounce of passion into Chasing
Pavements and then stood as rain fell down around her for Set Fire To The Rain, cooling her ardour.
Such was her low-key exit that people sat expectantly rather than cheering for an encore. It was only when she returned and identified her final three songs as such that most of us realised. The crowd cooed and giggled at the pictures of Adele through the years which rolled on the giant screen as she sang When We Were Young. Rolling In The Deep, the 18th and final song of the night, was a fittingly rousing affair as confetti pou red upon the crowd from the rafters. This could have been merely a slick run through of the songs loved by millions and the green-eyed soul superstar would have displeased none, but her humour and charm is the secret weapon in Adele’s armoury on stage.