Going up in the world. I think I’m going up in the world. I didn’t even know there was a Glasgow Art Club but I’m in it now. There’s wood and there’s leather. There’s atmosphere and a picture of dugs with big lugs. And there is Chiara Berardelli.
Ms Berardelli has probably never been to Springburn and perhaps that is why she knows that an album launch should be something to be remembered and indeed savoured. Accordingly, a proper piano and a full band has been brought in to these exalted surroundings to provide the necessary musical gravitas to accompany her heartfelt words. With a distinctive, remarkably unaffected voice seasoned with the polish of maturity and a hint of melancholy, she easily filled the room with warmth as the quite sizeable audience were taken through the songs on her album “Don’t Be So Lovely”.
In a time when it is fashionable to be LOUD, Ms Berardelli tonight brought proof that intelligence and subtlety are a much more efficient way of putting emotion across through the medium of music. Quality support from her band too with Mick Slaven’s understated guitar a particular highlight. Standout performances were “Dreaming Up America” and “Jigsaw”.
I’ve been wondering if I would ever have the opportunity to squeeze the phrase “essential dichotomy” into a review. Tonight the gods were kind and, as I reflected on the music of the classy Ms Berardelli on the train home, three good gentlemen apparently celebrating their release from the Bar-L (a holiday facility for the disadvantaged if you are not from these parts) offered all and sundry free beer that they had obtained – allegedly, of course – whilst “on the rob” that night. So convincing was their ruse that they were actually carrying the beer in a shopping basket just like the ones you would get in your average 24hr corner shop. The essential dichotomy that you can find in life even when you weren’t looking for it…