Review: Southern Beauty

Having seen Southern Beauty perform last year at the Pumphouse Theatre as part of Watford Fringe, my expectations were high for another dazzling night of music entertainment. I certainly wasn’t disappoint. The Southern Beauty mission is to re-interpret the classic pop tunes of The Beautiful South as sultry, swinging jazz.

Founded by Alison Wheeler, who was the third female vocalist for the multi-million album selling band The Beautiful South, the band is made up of pianist Phil Southgate, ukulele player and singer Phillipa Leigh, dummer James Harrison and bassist Matt Gornicki. Wheeler builds a wonderful rapport with the audience. She’s witty and relaxed she self deprecating and confident, you feel completely at ease in her company and welcomed into her performance space. Together they create a laid back, seductive sound which is at once sultry and playful. The music seems to coalesce out of the atmosphere, and melt away like waves on a shore as the classic 90s pop rock hits such as Rotterdam, Perfect 10 and Don’t Marry Her are reshaped in a laid back, intimate style.

My favourite moments were actually when they delivered The Great American Songbook standards such as It Had To Be You, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore and Old Devil Called Love with both reverence and aplomb. I particularly enjoyed the clever melodic connection made between Don’t Marry Her and Somewhere Over the Rainbow which tied the two worlds together with innocence and charm, the swear word in the lyrical being judiciously replaced with something more genteel.

Overall, the set was pretty much as I remembered it from last year, but that didn’t dampen the audience's enthusiasm one iota. It’s clear that Watford has taken this band to its collective heart, and Alison Wheeler herself noted that this was not just the largest audience they’ve had at the fringe (this is their third appearance at Watford fringe) but also the largest audience they've had ever. I have no doubt that they will be back again next year and very much hope the Watford Palace Theatre main auditorium will accommodate their return. It's the perfect space for their inventive, relaxing, soothing popular style and with a shake up in their set list this should become a much loved and highly anticipated annual part of the Watford Fringe line up. They've certainly built up a beautiful following.