- Music
- 29 Jun 07
Antony Hegarty casts an unforgettable shadow on stage, he gesticulates awkwardly as he sings with the painfully controlled energy of an artist who exorcises his demons through his vocal chords.
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.