Anthony And The Johnsons, Live At The Marquee, Cork

Like the love-child of Aaron Neville and Alison Moyet, torch singer Antony Hegarty casts an unforgettable shadow on stage. Dressed in a casual grey hoodie and jeans, he gesticulates awkwardly as he sings, surrounded by The Johnsons, a 10-piece chamber music band dressed in immaculate white.
After a crowd-pleasing opening from Martha Wainwright, whose sprite figure and sultry voice evoked cries of ‘I love you’ from the audience, Antony, a former backing singer for Lou Reed, launched straight into a mesmerising two-hour set, which included the favourites ‘Fistful Of Love’, ‘Cripple & The Starfish’, ‘Shake That Dog’, ‘You Are My Sister’ and the uncharacteristically upbeat ‘Kiss My Name’, all sung with the painfully controlled energy of a singer who exorcises his demons through his vocal chords. In between songs, we were treated to the boy-next-door banter the awkward singer is loved for, during which he describes his voice as an allergic reaction and tells us about his new life as a witch. “My mother’s a witch and I go wherever my mom goes, so I’m a witch now.”
Covers of soul singer Millie Jackson’s ‘A Child Of God, It’s Hard To Believe’, Leonard Cohen’s ‘The Guests’ and a bitter-sweet and affecting version of Beyoncé’s ‘Crazy In Love’, were met with deafening applause and by the time the self-conscious, trouser-tugging Antony delivered the final trill of ‘Twilight’ against a backdrop of stars, the question for me wasn’t “Will you ever return?” but “How long will I have to wait?” Like Boy George and Bjork, I’m mad about this boy.