Fringe 2025 Niki King Time The Famous Spiegeltent St Andrew Square 11th August Review
Niki King is at The Famous Spiegeltent in St Andrew Square for two dates only in this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe – tonight and 18th August with her two hour show (including interval) “Time”.
Over the years, multi-award-winning singer-songwriter and producer Niki King has earned her reputation as one of Scotland’s best jazz vocalists but, for me, this is a bit of a misleading label – Niki King is simply a very special vocalist and also, as tonight’s set effortlessly proves, one of the best soul singers around at the moment. Any competent vocalist can sing soul music (or any other genre), but Niki King is different, her music comes from where it should always come from – her heart and her soul - and that is a gift that comes from somewhere out there, not a mechanical trick that you can learn.
Time was the title of this show and also the subject of it and what this meant relative to Niki, and the songs in this set list were all briefly explained individually in what was a warm and friendly space between a performer and her audience. Time is something that is truly a mysterious force to us all and it can take on many different forms. Sometimes it can be that perfect moment with someone that you wish you could stop the passage of time for to allow you to hold it forever. At other times it could be that moment that you also wish you could stop time for, this time because you never want the next moment to happen.
All of the songs in tonight’s set list (except one) came from Niki’s 2024 album “The Everlasting Energy of Love”. I reviewed this album launch in February 2024 and it was interesting to see how these songs have matured over that time. The songs on this album were all written by Niki King and, for me, prove without any doubt that these are the work of a gifted songwriter who can shift musical styles and emotional colours with ease. Niki also has that gift of often wrapping a very dark lyrical content up in a very upbeat song.
Time may be the title of this show, but love and how it can, if you are lucky enough to have that special relationship with someone in your life, transcend not only time, but death itself is also a recurring theme throughout. The songs tonight reflect not only this, but look at where we all are at any one moment in time, as that is all we ever truly have, this moment. We are all though part of a continuance of time and memories. We are the connection to those before us and those who will follow us when we too have passed from this realm of existence.
Opening with a classic sounding soul song, “Soul Route”, we swiftly moved onto a song about the statistical chances of any one of us being born – “One in 400 Trillion”. Shifting between emotions on songs that included “Blanket of the Stars”, “Dark Cloud” “The Everlasting Energy of Love” and “Beyond This Time”, Niki King took her audience on her very personal journey of not only love and loss but the surprising (to her) discovery that even in the darkest of moments, a new kind of love can be found and maybe the end is not truly the end after all. All of these songs were introduced by relevant audio clips.
There were no weak songs in this performance tonight, and Niki and her band may have had the odd technical gremlin glitch, but I like that to happen, it proves that we are part of a live show, part of a moment in time. It is always for me the mark of a true performer how easily they recover from the unexpected on stage and that special relationship that Niki King has with her audience allowed this to be effortlessly dealt with.
There is something special to me about Niki King and her music, it takes me to that special space and often reminds me of listening to classic Curtis Mayfield albums, and not many people can do that for me. Apart from classic vocals, you also need very special song arrangements to do this, and tonight Niki King got everything right.
The full credit list for tonight’s show was as below
Vocals: Niki King
Guitar: Aki Remally
Double bass: Paul Gilbody
Drums: Rich Kass
Violin: Kate Miguda
Vocals : Sally Jaquet
Keys: Jean Baptiste Richon
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
Over the years, multi-award-winning singer-songwriter and producer Niki King has earned her reputation as one of Scotland’s best jazz vocalists but, for me, this is a bit of a misleading label – Niki King is simply a very special vocalist and also, as tonight’s set effortlessly proves, one of the best soul singers around at the moment. Any competent vocalist can sing soul music (or any other genre), but Niki King is different, her music comes from where it should always come from – her heart and her soul - and that is a gift that comes from somewhere out there, not a mechanical trick that you can learn.
Time was the title of this show and also the subject of it and what this meant relative to Niki, and the songs in this set list were all briefly explained individually in what was a warm and friendly space between a performer and her audience. Time is something that is truly a mysterious force to us all and it can take on many different forms. Sometimes it can be that perfect moment with someone that you wish you could stop the passage of time for to allow you to hold it forever. At other times it could be that moment that you also wish you could stop time for, this time because you never want the next moment to happen.
All of the songs in tonight’s set list (except one) came from Niki’s 2024 album “The Everlasting Energy of Love”. I reviewed this album launch in February 2024 and it was interesting to see how these songs have matured over that time. The songs on this album were all written by Niki King and, for me, prove without any doubt that these are the work of a gifted songwriter who can shift musical styles and emotional colours with ease. Niki also has that gift of often wrapping a very dark lyrical content up in a very upbeat song.
Time may be the title of this show, but love and how it can, if you are lucky enough to have that special relationship with someone in your life, transcend not only time, but death itself is also a recurring theme throughout. The songs tonight reflect not only this, but look at where we all are at any one moment in time, as that is all we ever truly have, this moment. We are all though part of a continuance of time and memories. We are the connection to those before us and those who will follow us when we too have passed from this realm of existence.
Opening with a classic sounding soul song, “Soul Route”, we swiftly moved onto a song about the statistical chances of any one of us being born – “One in 400 Trillion”. Shifting between emotions on songs that included “Blanket of the Stars”, “Dark Cloud” “The Everlasting Energy of Love” and “Beyond This Time”, Niki King took her audience on her very personal journey of not only love and loss but the surprising (to her) discovery that even in the darkest of moments, a new kind of love can be found and maybe the end is not truly the end after all. All of these songs were introduced by relevant audio clips.
There were no weak songs in this performance tonight, and Niki and her band may have had the odd technical gremlin glitch, but I like that to happen, it proves that we are part of a live show, part of a moment in time. It is always for me the mark of a true performer how easily they recover from the unexpected on stage and that special relationship that Niki King has with her audience allowed this to be effortlessly dealt with.
There is something special to me about Niki King and her music, it takes me to that special space and often reminds me of listening to classic Curtis Mayfield albums, and not many people can do that for me. Apart from classic vocals, you also need very special song arrangements to do this, and tonight Niki King got everything right.
The full credit list for tonight’s show was as below
Vocals: Niki King
Guitar: Aki Remally
Double bass: Paul Gilbody
Drums: Rich Kass
Violin: Kate Miguda
Vocals : Sally Jaquet
Keys: Jean Baptiste Richon
Review by Tom King © 2025
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com