JADAR

★★★★☆

Half a century since the release of her chart-topping breakthrough single, Can the Can, Suzi Quatro has embarked on a UK tour – and she’s still got it!

The tour, which is billed “The Queen of Rock ‘N Roll Performing A Career Spanning Show”, sees Suzi sing a real mix of material: old bangers, newer songs, album tracks, and covers. Rather than take us on a linear journey, she flipped back and forth between past and present – rocking and rolling along.

She opted not to have an opening act and instead split her show into two hour-long acts. She might be 73 but she showed no signs of exhaustion. On the contrary, she probably would have been happy to go on four hours (if she was getting paid).

For the first act, she wore a bedazzled denim number, with glistening jewels plastered all over her jeans – including her derriere, which she showed off and shook at least twice.

She wisely split her hits between both acts and broke the hits up with lesser-known songs. The first act included ‘Stumblin’ In’, one of my favourite Suzi Quatro songs.

Suzi was much, much bigger over here than her native US but ‘Stumblin’ In’, her only North American hit, missed out on the UK top 40. Aware of this, she told us that the song was a huge hit in North America. She performed the song, a duet with Chris Norman, with a member of her band.

Her band was all-male but the members varied in age. The drummer was not sat behind a drum shield, as is often the norm at rock concerts. His beats pulsated through the audience.

Suzi’s backing singers, two young women, were incredible. Dressed in black leather, with a costume change in the second act, they embodied rock chicks. They had learned choreography for every single number, sometimes making use of tambourines. Their enthusiasm was infectious. Occasionally, I found myself watching them, rather than Suzi.

Suzi was similarly energetic and also very funny. The show could have been billed “an evening of songs and stories”.

Before singing ‘The Devil in Me’, she told us that her mother used to tell her, “Susan, you’re an angel”, prompting laughter from the audience. “Why do they always laugh at that?” she asked her keyboardist.

She told us that ’48 Crash’, one of her biggest hits, is about the male menopause, which is “much, much worse than the female menopause ’cause at least we admit to it!”

That was not Suzi’s only dig at the weaker sex. She even had a dig at her husband, telling us that her cover of Larry Williams’ ‘Slow Down’ was the second good decision he ever made: “The first was marrying me… I’ll pay for that later”.

Suzi broke barriers for female rockers in the 70s, and she remains committed to girl power!

The humour continued during the next number: a cover of Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’. She asked the audience to sing the chorus but was disappointed.

“Alright, that was really… shitty.” After the next chorus, she asked us, “Why didn’t you do that in the first place?”

When introducing her band in the second act, she referred to the boys on bass and her “horny boys” – she ain’t no ordinary old lady!

The were also some tender moments, with Suzi addressing her late parents, but the first mention was inadvertently funny. She pointed up at the slip seats in the circle, leading me to think that her mother was sat up there. “Her mother must be ancient,” I thought to myself.

“She’s been up there awhile now,” Suzi said, still pointing at the slip seats. It took me a moment to realise that she was referring to Heaven!

The second time she mentioned her parents, again pointing up at the people in the slip seats, she performed ‘Can I Be Your Girl?’ at the keyboard. “My mom gave me my life; my dad gave me my career,” she said poetically.

At the end of the first act, she told us that she was going to change into something more recognisable. “I feel like me now,” she said at the beginning of the second act, now dressed in a leather pantsuit, similar to the one she wore for the ’48 Crash’ single cover – the iconic image of which was printed on a huge cloth and hung above the stage.

The second act turned into story time, with Suzi giving us a whistle-stop tour of her career so far, right back to her origin. She mentioned her first hit, ‘Can the Can’, and the band began playing the iconic track, much to the delight of the audience, before Suzi cut off the music and shut us up: “Too early,” she said.

The song was performed towards the end of end of the main set, with an intro which saw Suzi join the drummer for an exhilarating drum off. The previous number, ‘Glycerine Queen’, was ended with a long guitar solo – a masterclass in guitar playing. Suzi is as skilled with instruments as she is vocally.

‘Can the Can’, Suzi’s first UK number one, was immediately followed by her second, ‘Devil Gate Drive’. For a small portion of the song, the backing singers joined her down front, and they danced together. It was great to see the girls break free and get their moment in the spotlight. It was a thrilling end to the main set.

The first encore was opened with ‘If You Can’t Give Me Love’, one of Suzi’s best-loved songs on these shores. This performance was truly striking.

She ended the first encore with ‘Sweet Little Rock and Roller’, a Chuck Berry cover. The second encore, a cover of the Eagles’ ‘Desperado’, was performed just by her and her keyboardist. It was a bliss, relaxed end to a concert that was all about rock and roll.

Whilst she sang several covers, they are all songs which she has recorded for albums; she told us that she does not perform songs which she has not already recorded.

The only way the concert could be improved is with a bigger production. Suzi commands the stage on her own; she does not need dancers or set pieces but there could be a screen with occasional video footage, perhaps some throwbacks, rather than just a cloth with her face on it. The atmosphere could be enhanced with some more exciting lighting – more fitting for a night of rock and roll.

Further, from a personal point of view, I’d have loved it if she performed the little-known ‘The Race is On’ and ‘Four Letter Words’ – I’m obsessed!

All in all, this was a captivating concert which saw a vampiric, 73-year-old Suzi Quatro cement her legacy as the Queen of Rock and Roll.