Adele is taking over the world, Amy Winehouse is taking her twelve steps back to the charts, and Duffy has floundered – but in the meantime the cavalry is coming in the shape of John Prescott’s favourite singer.
Sarah Joyce, who goes under the nom de chanteuse Rumer, gave a performance for Radio 2 on Thursday night at Abbey Road which reeked of good taste.
Not in that chintzy way that good taste can program the very essence out of music, but properly good taste, the kind of decision-making guile every creative talent needs.
The venue, next door to the Beatles’ second home Studio 2, is phenomenal. Rumer picked singers with whom she wanted to duet, from her Smash Hits poster boy Rick Astley to earth mother Sandie Shaw, as well as the golden-tonsilled Lemar and John Grant, whose Bella Union debut Queen of Denmark was deservedly voted Mojo magazine’s album of the year.
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The songs showed an astute fandom of all kinds of songs, from a Patsy Cline number with Grant, to a song from Carole King’s Fantasy album with Lemar, Trains and Boats and Planes with Shaw and Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s One for My Baby with Astley. On her own, she also gave flawless renditions of David Gates’ Goodbye Girl, which she has already covered on record, and Hall and Oates’ Sara Smile, as well as her own hits Slow and Aretha. A late bloomer as far as the music industry is concerned, Rumer has been in bands, waitressed and even lived in a commune, but now that she is attracting Brit nominations, Radio 2 specials and comparisons to Karen Carpenter (her records have more of a whiff of Dusty sings Bacharach and David), what’s really exciting is that the world’s best songwriters will be stalking her to have their names in brackets on her future albums. That’s if she wants them – she wrote most of her debut album, Seasons Of My Soul. Naturally, she has collected celebrity fans. As well as the pugnacious former deputy prime minister, Rumer has admirers in Burt Bacharach, who has invited her to his house, Jools Holland whom she supported in 2010 and Elton John. Like her, and because they like her, they have good taste.Want to discuss other issues? Join the debate on our new Scottish Voices forum
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