While West Indian-born singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading has reached something of a plateau in terms of her commercial career (her last UK Top 20 hit single was in 1983, her last UK Top 30 hit album was in 1991), there are still plenty of fans around to ensure that her role is more mainstream artist than cult heroine.
She begins began at Vicar Street with two of her best-known songs (Drop The Pilot, Down To Zero), immediately setting the scene for a cosy, undemanding evening of articulate singer/songwriter material. She's a curious performer, essentially shy and humble in the face of zestful audience participation and adulation, but she carries her signature tunes well, only faltering when she pads out her more well-known songs (including Love And Affection, Willow, All The Way From America, Rosie and More Than One Kind of Love) with ineffectual and frankly dull semi-funk/reggae tunes.
Armatrading has to be admired for her resilience in the face of commercial indifference. She has stuck to her guns and, while some of her material sounds as old as the proverbial hills, other songs are as fresh as they were at the time of their release. Above it all stands an unpretentious artist, as direct and honest now as she was 30 years ago.
