Weather Report Review

 

Boldness, genius, and magic

Voiceworks – Shenton Park 24th June 2023

 

As the German poet and philosopher Goethe once espoused:

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has

genius, power, and magic in it.”

 

This exhortation went to the heart of the performance I witnessed at

Shenton Park Community Centre on Saturday evening when

‘Voiceworks’, an ensemble of some fifty singers and musicians,

enchanted their audience with the show ‘Weather Report’.

 

This group of modern-day troubadours give proof positive that the muse

must exist in all of us, and that musicality can bloom, provided of course

it is nurtured correctly. What ‘Voiceworks’ has achieved can largely be

attributed to the fecundity of Show Director Joshua James Webb, the

sunshine and warmth of Musical Director Jackson Griggs and the

irrigational perspiration of the vocalists over many, many rehearsals. No

matter how talented you are, you don’t get this good without putting in

the effort.

 

Billed as a ‘contemporary’ selection of songs about the weather and

seasons, some of the numbers must have almost chosen themselves

such as ‘It’s Raining Men’, performed with great gusto by the ladies. The

show was efficiently interlaced by two spoof TV weather reporters (Birute

and John) who moved proceedings along seamlessly with performances

that gave just a little homage to comedians ‘Abbot and Costello’ and

their ad libs were much appreciated by the audience.

We were treated to a gratifying gamut of entertainment.

 

My personal favourites included ‘Here Comes the Rain Again’ performed

by a female quintet who managed to not only replicate the synth-based

atmosphere of the 1983 Eurythmics hit, but also improved on the earthily

suggestive vocals of Annie Lennox.

 

There was a poetry reading which delivered such wonderfully evocative

imagery that I assumed it had been taken from the back catalogue of

Robert Frost; until I was advised it was written by the performer. There

were vocal pyrotechnics by way of ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’ and Toto’s ‘Africa’

(complete with a most impressive kinetic rendition of a rainstorm

performed with clicking fingers and patted thighs). There was even time

to accommodate a handful songs for the audience to enthusiastically

sing-along to.

Great fun!

 

The supporting musicians were tight and melodious; able to provide the

aural deception of being a much larger combo than seemed feasible,

particularly during the more complex and ambitious songs. But then the

whole show punched above its weight, pushing the ensemble to its very

limit.

 

Just as it is only possible to find the edge by sometimes falling off it,

there were occasions where limitations were momentarily revealed. The

sparse performance of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ drifted at times into Indigo

and Violet but then again, the most exciting part of a high wire act for

the audience, is when the artiste wobbles and faulters. Am I right?

Nowhere was this chutzpah more in evidence than in the choice of

encore.

 

Who could have possibly suggested attempting ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

was a good idea? Tackling a song of such complexity consisting of a

ballad segment, an operatic passage, a piece of pure hard rock and a

reflective coda showed exceptional self-confidence. Not least because

there can’t be a person alive who doesn’t know the song word-for-word

and note-for-note. And guess what?

They pulled it off.

 

Keith Richbell

26th June 2023