Sunday, May 25, 2008

25 May: Duffy Live@ Great Hall, Cardiff


Duffy was live in the Great Hall, Cardiff on 25th May. If you have pics, vids, reviews please leave a comment!

Tomorrow vid below:


The SETLIST (thanks so much to Welshie for grabbing the list from the guy behind the mixing desk!)
Syrup and Honey
Rockferry
Scared
Breaking my own heart
Serious
Oh boy
Warwick Avenue
Delayed Devotion
Stepping Stone
Hanging on too long
Put it in Perspective
Tomorrow
Mercy
ENCORE:
Joe Meek (i.e. Please Stay)
Distant Dreamer

Hey does anyone know - did Duffy play 'Breaking My Own Heart' in it's entirety as I have seen her break off from doing this song twice (saying she wasn't having any fun and stopping and doing something else)....

Mercy vid is below:



Review below from icWales:

Wide-eyed Duffy keeps her feet on the ground

LESS than a fortnight ago, Duffy was launching her bid for fame in America with a gig at the famous New York Apollo, which goes by the slogan Where stars are born and legends are made.

She appeared to win over the American music fans and just days later her debut album, Rockferry, entered the US billboard chart at number four.

But last night the soul star who has gone from relative unknown to household name in just a few short months was back in her Welsh homeland for a performance at Cardiff University.

And what an occasion it was.

With success now in the bag across the Atlantic, she will soon have to get used to playing some fairly vast auditoriums and even arenas.

But for the moment, the size of venue booked out for her gigs is still catching up with her escalating fame.

The Great Hall at Cardiff University might be bigger than the upstairs room in Clwb Ifor Bach where she performed to a packed crowd of just 220 people last time she was in Cardiff but its hardly the size of Wembley Stadium.

Carry on at this rate though, and its only a matter of time before the captivating soul star is playing to crowds many times larger than were present last night.

Whats refreshing about Duffy is how she carries her growing repute with an endearing modesty and humility.

She still seems entirely approachable and friendly, and behaves in the public eye with the kind of wide-eyed awe of someone still not quite able to grasp the magnitude of what is happening to them.

And its a quality that helps make a connection with the crowd as she performs what feels like a true homecoming gig.

The singer, who at just 23 has already been described as the new Dusty Springfield a tag which she apparently isnt too keen on showcased a selection of songs from Rockferry, which has topped the UK album chart and already shifted more than 600,000 copies.

After keeping her fans waiting for almost 20 minutes, she arrived on stage shout-ing Shwd ych chi, Caerdydd?, before launching into the bluesy ballad Syrup and Honey.

Duffy, wearing a black, white and red prom dress with red high heels, then took things up a gear with album title track Rockferry.

Wow, there are so many of you here, said the Welsh chart-topper.

Its the first night of my tour and its so nice to be back.

She then told us she would be playing a song that would be unfamiliar to many and once again she brought things to a slow pace with the song Scared.

Throughout the night, she continued to perform tracks from her album, including upbeat and hugely catchy chart-topping debut single Mercy to the gorgeous ballad Warwick Avenue, which is released today, Duffy certainly pleased her army of fans, who spent all night cheering her every move.

The hall was packed with people of all ages from young women who clearly see the singer as something of a role model, to older generations of music fans, both men and women, who have all been struck by Duffys remarkable voice and her songwriting talents.

While Cardiff Universitys Great Hall is a rather intimate gigging experience, it was certainly a much larger concert than Duffys last performance in Cardiff back in February.

Understandably, the show was an instant sell-out.

Last nights gig was one of a handful of British dates for the singer, who hails from Nefyn.

On Friday she will be heading back to her native North Wales when she performs for audiences at Venue Cymru in Llandudno.

Despite her new-found fame, it seems she is determined to keep her feet on the ground and she says it was important for her to play venues in Wales.

And judging by last nights performance, her fans will be very glad of that.

[End article]


There is also a review at this link.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very bad journalism here as there are many relevant things missed out. But the screaming omission is: HOW MANY WERE THERE? She makes a big thing about how small Clwb Ifor Bach is, and then does not bother telling us how big this venue is. What a silly cow.

Whence do they get these hopeless journalists, nowadays? From kindergarten? SHEESH.

Danyelle said...

LOL I know.... I wanted to know the full setlist aswell and she tells us part of it but not all. Bizarre.

Hopefully someone who went will give us some info...

Anonymous said...

I expect all the proper journos had the weekend off ..... hang on a minute .... most of the proper journos are rubbish as well.

By the way Danyelle isn't it about time they put you in charge of Duffy's web presence ... the present regieme can't seem to stop the hacking.

Danyelle said...

It is pretty freaky there seems to be some weirdo radio playing on Duffy's myspace.

As for the web presence it would be less hard work if someone would email me Duffy's schedule but I guess it would be a cold day in hell before they would actually cooperate with fans... LOL
Too bad.

Anonymous said...

danyelle ... did you miss the interesting interview on Heart radio ... invited back to Leno .... Bond theme.

Or maybe I've missed it here.

PS looking forward to your report on the Sheffield gig.

Danyelle said...

Hiya, I actually found the heart radio (interview plus video of rooftop session) yesterday. I was hoping someone would youtube the vid but I should be back to post about it yesterday... also I wasn't sure what date it was. Was it SUnday?

Anonymous said...

The Heart rooftop video's on youtube now plus the Paul O'Grady show ... oh and the Bon Jovi gyrations LOL

Anonymous said...

Newspaper journalism is all about speaking to an assumed audience in a formulaic and stereotypical manner because newspapers don't like taking risks of any kind. Also, they work at high pressure on a huge number of different things at the same time and frequently make mistakes so let's not be too hard on Karen Price.
Duffy has an astounding voice and she is the real deal.
A north Walian blonde who speaks Welsh in a sexy drawl seems like a dream come true for me. All I have to do now is persuade her to marry me!!
I was at Cardiff Great Hall for her gig on Sunday and I was hugely impressed. I actually think she is more Loretta Lynn or Patsy Cline than Dusty Springfield. More coalminer's daughter with that energy and rasp in her voice than soul princess.
The accoustics in the great hall (where did the word Great come from, it was a ghastly hangar with two bars filled with people, some of whom talked throughout the songs) were not good but Duffy absolutely filled the room.
Her first song sang with just an accoustic guitar accompaniment was a massive statement of intent. Her voice was so powerful and commanding. That took me by surprise because I'd always thought that the studio engineers big up people's voices.
Keep taking the honey and rum or whatever it is you take to keep the tonsils supple.
I'd love to know what duffy herself thinks about my likening her far more to Loreta Lynn and Patsy Cline than Dusty?????
Perhaps she could do a country music number(s)!!
Garry

welshy said...

Hi - I was lucky enough to get a set list from the guy behind the mixing desk - so here it is in all its glory:

Syrup and Honey
Rockferry
Scared
Breaking my own heart
Serious
Oh boy
Warwick Avenue
Delayed Devotion
Stepping Stone
Hanging on too long
Perspective
Tomorrow
Mercy
Joe Meek
Distant Dreamer

Anonymous said...

Did Bernard Butler play in the band for the Cardiff gig?

Anonymous said...

There's a really good take on this concert in today's Western Mail by Carolyn Hitt, who is the top columnist in Wales.

I'm interested in bathport's comments and yes I can see that soulful country connection. Duffy was talking about the possibility of a Welsh language album, a gospel style album. It's interesting that soul, country music, gospel all come out of that revivalist religious tradition which has been as strong in Wales in the fairly recent past as in the Southern States.