After she all but mimed her way through her brief headline appearance at the Platinum Party at the Palace concert this month, all eyes were on Diana Ross’s lips as she sashayed from the wings of the O2 for the London show of her long-delayed Thank You tour. Good thing, too. As her brass fanfare reached crescendo and broke into I’m Coming Out, she flung off her voluminous shawl of curly tangerine frills with such a flourish that her microphone had to be rescued from the front row. One way or another, this Motown legend’s vocals would be a knockout.
Like so many of the great Sixties singers, at 78 Ross’s voice is a bent and battered instrument today, often bellowing through the big numbers and clutching hopelessly for the high notes. But she’s lost not an ounce of pizazz in 60 years and, backed by supportive but not overwhelming troupe of backing singers and a good-time party band, she could still turn North Greenwich into an outpost of boogie wonderland. From the opening run of Supremes hits, including Baby Love, Stop! In The Name of Love and You Can’t Hurry Love, you’d have believed she had her setlist upside down and was playing her encore first. But she was merely brushing aside her vivacious Sixties pop era to make way for a raging disco inferno.
