Faithfull’s star quality still breaks hearts after 50 years of tears gone by
stick. Just over an hour after it began, the evening was cut short: “I have to stop now or I’ll fall over. I’m just too tired,” she confided.
Faithfull’s body may be betraying her, but Mick Jagger’s ex is still razor-sharp. Exuding the faded imperial grandeur of long-defenestrated European royalty, what she lacked in mobility and vocal power, she made up for with presence, whether she sat or stood.
She rattled off anecdotes, made even more delightfully scurrilous by being delivered in her trademark posh growl and if she didn’t remember all the words to all the songs, Give My Love To London and Vagabond Ways had bile to spare. Even so, this was a contemplative set which focused on rue and mortality. Her take on As Tears Go By can still break hearts after half a century and the audience including Keith Richards’s ex Anita Pallenberg cooed along; The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan was as empowering as it’s always been, although Broken Engli sh lost a soupçon of its threat when she admitted she refers to it as Broken Biscuits. Before her hasty exit, Faithfull contemplated retirement. “I made the mistake of seeing Rudolf Nureyev’s final tour, which he shouldn’t have done. Afterwards, I said to myself ‘be careful’. It’s not the end for me just yet, but it’s coming…” Hop e f u l l y, s h e ’s wi s e enough to know when the time to bid farewell has come.