Support Act: Bennie James
The show opened with support act, local singer-songwriter, Bennie James, whose melodic folk-pop has been gaining some attention on the South Coast. Bennie appeared with two Sydney musicians, Sheridan and Nico, who provided vocal harmonies and added texture to James’s tunes with a variety of instrumentation, from flute to glockenspiel to violin. James won over the audience with his honest performance style, warm, appealing voice, and catchy melodies and rhythms.
Marcia Hines
Just two days following her fifty-eighth birthday, and after more than forty years performing live, Marcia Hines danced onto the stage as though she’d just launched her debut album. With the powerful vocals and charisma that have long been her defining characteristics, she poured out a stream of well-known hits, the audience greeting each with enthusiastic cheering.
Marcia Sings Tapestry and the Songs of Carole King
Marcia Hines’s rendition of ‘You Gotta Let Go’ showed her voice to retain the soul and punch that, way back in 1975, made her debut, Marcia Shines, the highest selling album by a female Australia artist.
Thirty-five years later, in October, 2010, Hines released her latest album, Marcia Sings Tapestry and the Songs of Carole King, and the evening featured several tunes from this, including a rollicking version of the classic, ‘I Feel the Earth Move’. The superb rhythm section, funk experts Warren Trout on drums and Alex Hewetson on bass, delivered a swinging version of ‘Smackwater Jack’, and then a minimal and very musical take on ‘It’s Too Late’.
Roger Cook and Bobby Wood’s ‘Your Love Still Brings Me To My Knees’ inspired uproarious applause and dancers in the aisles, then out came the disco ball for ‘I Just Don’t Know What To Do’. The party mood mellowed with Marcia Hines’s stunning vocal control displayed in the ballad ‘What I Did for Love’.
"Q and A Time"
Suddenly, the lights came on, to the sound of Hines announcing, “You’ve been staring at me, now I get to stare at you.” She admitted some of the challenges that she faces, even with all her experience, explaining, “You know, all the things that go on in my head, before I go on stage, you cannot imagine…you’re only ever as good as your last gig,” before introducing “Q and A time”. She invited audience members to ask questions, adding, in her typically playful fashion, “so long as you keep yourselves nice.” The audience responded with enquiries about her age and reminiscences of listening to her music on anniversaries. One listener told Hines of feeling transported “back to when she was sixteen.” Hines replied, “That’s one of the best things a singer can hear.” The entire auditorium sang ‘Happy Birthday’, to which she responded, “That’s never happened to me before.”
After the chat was over, the set finished up with a string of energetic tunes, including ‘You Should Be Dancing’ and ‘Burn Baby Burn’ and an assertion from Hines that she’ll be singing live till “I’m an embarrassment to myself as I wheel myself on stage.”
Of course, the crowd demanded an encore, which was ‘Ain’t No Body Loves Me Better’. Hines jumped off the stage and into the front rows of the crowd, greeting various fans personally.
Marcia Hines showed herself to be a generous, infectiously energetic and highly skilled performer, who reaches out to her audience through both her voice and her natural stage presence.
Jasmine Crittenden - Jasmine Crittenden (B.A.)(Hons.)(First Class) is a writer and editor specialising in music, literature and travel.
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