George HaffendenThe legendary singer returns to the London Palladium for her farewell tour
Another week, another farewell tour hits the UK. This time it was the iconic singer Dionne Warwick, whose pandemic-delayed farewell tour finally hit London this week for two shows at the Palladium.
At 81, Warwick has decided she’s through with international touring, saying in a statement that “it’s becoming hard. So, I’ve decided to stop touring on that level in Europe…. but I’m not retiring!!”
And fair play to her, I wouldn’t want to be doing as many dates as she is currently doing in my eighties. After being couped up at home for 2 years, she’s back on an extensive European/UK tour having already completed several big dates in Europe. She’s currently in the middle of a pretty mammoth UK tour, where she’s playing most major cities as well as smaller towns, such as Truro in Cornwall.
Given her age and the length of the tour, the show is a 90 minute tour through some of her biggest hits. Unlike the last UK tour – where she played the Royal Albert Hall in 2018 for over 2 hours – she’s sticking to a standard setlist for this last tour, backed by her 4 piece band and 14 piece string section.
Yet should she really be touring in her current condition? Half way through the show she paused proceedings, complaining of a sharp pain in her leg, announcing that she had surgery just before flying to Europe, and is touring against the advice of her doctors. You have to admire her spirit, if not her medical decisions. But after 2 years of waiting, perhaps she just wants to get the tour done, pain or no pain.
But ever the professional, whatever pain she is currently experiencing, she put on a great final show for us in London.
Admittedly, her voice isn’t what it was back in 2018. She often sing-speaks and although she tries, she often misses the high notes. Her decision to retire from performing is therefore probably a wise one. No doubt there’s still money to be made from these tours, it’s unlikely her voice will hold out for any more long tours.
Despite this, and mindful of her age, no one at the Palladium seemed to care. They’re were there to see one of the original pop legends one final time, and she still has that charm, grace and unique tone to see the show through.
The songs are chosen largely from her collaborations with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, whom Warwick praised for his lyrics and poetry in particular. Most of the big numbers are here: ‘Walk On By’ is turned into a singalong, before Warwick delivers a great version of ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’. There’s snippets of other favourites, from ‘Message To Michael’ to ‘You’ll Never Get To Heaven’.
The standouts were ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’, and a duet with her son (and drummer) David Elliot on a revamped version of ‘I Say A Little Prayer’. She might have sung it first, but Aretha Franklin outdid her – something that possibly still rankles Warwick (after all, she never forgave Cilla Black for copying her version of ‘Alfie’) but now performs the Aretha arrangement rather than her own. Elliot not only is a decent drummer, but he’s inherited the family singing genes, sounding not a million miles away from Howard Hewitt. It’s clearly a thrill for Elliot to be duetting with his mother again, potentially for the last time on tour.
There’s also room for her eighties hit ‘Heartbreaker’, written and produced by the Bee Gees, as well as the Manilow produced ‘I’ll Never Love That Way Again’. Good songs, but they don’t match the beauty of the Bacharach-David songbook.
Perhaps given her reduced vocal range there’s a few notable omissions from the show, in particular her breakout hit ‘Don’t Make Me Over’ and the classic ‘A House Is Not A Home’. But when you’ve recorded as much music as Warwick has, you simply can’t include it all. (Personally, I’d love to have heard her and her son duet on ‘How Many Times Can We Say Goodbye’, originally recorded with Luther Vandross, but suspect I’m the only one who’d have enjoyed it.)
And given the length of this tour, she shouldn’t be stretching herself night in, night out.
With six decades of experience though, Warwick’s slightly old-fashioned presentation is a slick affair: her backing band are in tuxes, as are the strings, and she rattles off her well-rehearsed stage patter in between songs. Yet towards the end she broke off to complain about the state of world affairs, taking particular aim at Putin and gun control in America. She even gave a bollocking to an audience member who dared interrupt her mid-flow. But ever the professional, she took it in her stride, launching into ‘If I Want To’, a song that clearly means a lot to Warwick.
As the show came to an end there was still room for a lengthy rendition of ‘We Are The World’ (Warwick appeared on the original version), and the syrupy ‘That’s What Friends Are For’.
Then, after saying thanks and farewell, Dionne Warwick walked off the London stage for the final time in her career. And unlike other artists who have embarked on farewell tours – Gladys Knight comes to mind – it’s unlikely Warwick will go back on her word. This probably is it, at least for her live shows.
But after 60+ years performing, we should be grateful we got to see this icon perform one final time.