Neneh Cherry
The Gov

(Reviewed by John Glennie)

Neneh is a Swedish singer-songwriter who forged a reputation in the 1980’s with a ground-breaking mix of R&B, rap and hip-hop. She started as a backup singer in various bands before her solo career took off in 1989. She was raised in a musical family by her trumpeter step-father and with her brother Eagle-Eye Cherry.

This tour is highlighting tracks from her latest album Broken Politics and she kicked off with the rhythmic Shot Gun Shack which, half-way through was interrupted with a sound-check when she was not happy with the sound mix. Even that was quite entertaining in its own right, before resuming the opening track.

They followed up with Deep Vein Thrombosis in which she declares that “life is a bitch, but I like it”. This is a slower track with a gentle musical background. This early in the show and I was captivated with the delightful, multi-talented Rosie. Neneh and Rosie had a great on-stage rapport – and obviously off-stage as well as Neneh said the two of them went shopping together and were delighted with the friendliness of Adelaidians. They appeared so close I thought they may have been mother and daughter, but a subsequent web-search proved otherwise. Rosie is a very versatile young musician switching between a large array of percussion instruments as well as bongos, a snare drum, vibraphone and harp – and obviously loved every minute of it as she danced while she played.

She switched to harp for Black Monday – another slower one which highlighted Neneh’s outstanding voice to perfection. One of my favourites for the evening was the haunting Kong – great melody and rhythm – which was followed by another slow melody in Synchronised Devotion with Rosie on vibraphone and birthday-girl Lana on bass guitar. The pace stayed the same with Slow Release.

The beat picked up again with Fallen Leaves (Rosie on the snare this time) and Neneh showcasing her rap. There was a brief (comical) interlude where Neneh rolled out a tongue-twister about “how many cookies in the cookie jar” and wondering who stole them!

Back to the music and Faster Than The Truth before a flashback to her debut 1989 album Raw Like Sushi with Manchild. Final track (before the encore, that is!) was Soldier off the new album. The first encore song – a rap – is a powerful one about AIDS called I Got You Under My Skin. The evening finished up with another classic from her debut album – Buffalo Stance – where she had the enthralled crowd singing the chorus lines for her.

A great evening was had by all and I certainly hope that Neneh and her band were so captivated by Adelaide (as she explained) that they come back and play for us again – I will certainly go!