Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024 Camille O'Sullivan Loveletter Assembly Roxy 1st August Review
Camille O’Sullivan: Loveletter is at Assembly Roxy until 17 August (no shows 7 and 12), and if you are lover of the words and music of Shane MacGowan and Sinéad O’Connor, then this is probably a show that you will want to put into your “go to see” diary.
If you do decide to go to this show, do not expect Camille O’Sullivan to be doing basic covers and a tribute band style performance of your favourite songs as that is never going to happen. What you will get though is a unique and expressive artist who gives her own interpretations of any song that she decides to sing, and always brings something new and unexpected to it in the process.
This show is a little different though from any of Camille’s performances that I have reviewed over the years, and as its title suggests this one is a true “Loveletter” in words and music from not just one performance artist to another, but one friend to another. Along with the music, Camille tonight gives us all an insight into her younger self who grew up loving the music of Shane MacGowan/The Pogues and Sinéad O’Connor, never believing that one day they would become personal friends of hers. This to me is where the real power of this show is, and that loss of two close friends is expressed in the only way really possible, through their words, their music and memories of who they really were as people away from the media spotlights.
At the start of this show, Camille makes it clear that tonight is about words and the beautifully written words that formed the basis of these songs. Sadly, the true genius of these words has so often been overlooked over the years and I have to admit that I too have so often not appreciated them for what they truly were, so a big thank you from me to Camille for correcting that oversight tonight.
If you are a Pogues fan then be prepared for very emotional arrangements and performances of songs, including “Summer In Siam”, “The Broad Majestic Shannon” and “Haunted”. Amongst the Sinéad O’Connor songs tonight, “My Darling Child” was the one that let the real human being behind the words shine through the most.
Also in this show are songs by Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Radiohead and Nick Cave (a close friend of Shane MacGowan). As always, Camille O’Sullivan brought her own unique performances of these songs, and Camille’s interpretation of one Nick Cave song, “The Ship Song”, has over the years become a classic in its own right.
This show was a true emotional response by Camille O’Sullivan to the pain of dealing with the loss of close friends (and other times in her life) and that personal fragility is something that not many performance artists are prepared to share, or can even convey to their audiences.
With Camille O’Sullivan tonight, Feargal Murray (keyboards and vocals) who was a perfect partner in music for this show.
Tonight was about many things, including the power of words and music in our lives, but also that much as we might want to sometimes, we cannot go back and live in the past and the future has not yet arrived. This moment, now, is all that all of us have to live in, and every day that is a fleeting experience, a ball of sand that no matter how hard or how tightly we try to hold on to it, always in the end slips through our fingers. In the end, all that is all too often left are words, music and memories.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
If you do decide to go to this show, do not expect Camille O’Sullivan to be doing basic covers and a tribute band style performance of your favourite songs as that is never going to happen. What you will get though is a unique and expressive artist who gives her own interpretations of any song that she decides to sing, and always brings something new and unexpected to it in the process.
This show is a little different though from any of Camille’s performances that I have reviewed over the years, and as its title suggests this one is a true “Loveletter” in words and music from not just one performance artist to another, but one friend to another. Along with the music, Camille tonight gives us all an insight into her younger self who grew up loving the music of Shane MacGowan/The Pogues and Sinéad O’Connor, never believing that one day they would become personal friends of hers. This to me is where the real power of this show is, and that loss of two close friends is expressed in the only way really possible, through their words, their music and memories of who they really were as people away from the media spotlights.
At the start of this show, Camille makes it clear that tonight is about words and the beautifully written words that formed the basis of these songs. Sadly, the true genius of these words has so often been overlooked over the years and I have to admit that I too have so often not appreciated them for what they truly were, so a big thank you from me to Camille for correcting that oversight tonight.
If you are a Pogues fan then be prepared for very emotional arrangements and performances of songs, including “Summer In Siam”, “The Broad Majestic Shannon” and “Haunted”. Amongst the Sinéad O’Connor songs tonight, “My Darling Child” was the one that let the real human being behind the words shine through the most.
Also in this show are songs by Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Radiohead and Nick Cave (a close friend of Shane MacGowan). As always, Camille O’Sullivan brought her own unique performances of these songs, and Camille’s interpretation of one Nick Cave song, “The Ship Song”, has over the years become a classic in its own right.
This show was a true emotional response by Camille O’Sullivan to the pain of dealing with the loss of close friends (and other times in her life) and that personal fragility is something that not many performance artists are prepared to share, or can even convey to their audiences.
With Camille O’Sullivan tonight, Feargal Murray (keyboards and vocals) who was a perfect partner in music for this show.
Tonight was about many things, including the power of words and music in our lives, but also that much as we might want to sometimes, we cannot go back and live in the past and the future has not yet arrived. This moment, now, is all that all of us have to live in, and every day that is a fleeting experience, a ball of sand that no matter how hard or how tightly we try to hold on to it, always in the end slips through our fingers. In the end, all that is all too often left are words, music and memories.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com