By Aashiq
Available until: 29th October. Whenever you buy
it you’ll have access until the 29th
I adore Aimie Atkinson. If I was straight… but then I’m not.
But I do love her so here’s a review for Queen Aimie of Six, or the
Pretty Woman of the Piccadilly as she now is (or will be when we all finally
get back from this annoying little hiatus). Here’s a five star review from one
queen to another.
The Night Cap concerts are only half an hour (though Aimie squeezed in another six minutes, that number is a bit of a theme with Aimie), but they always seem longer. (In a good way.) The guests sing five songs and in between, they have a chat to Paul Taylor-Mills, the gorgeous presenter. Not that I was watching him the whole time. The thing about Aimie is I always seem to spend a lot of time coveting her clothes. She looked fabulous as always.
Aimie has some great stories to tell, some of which I knew
(but was happy to hear again), some of which I didn’t, but I’m not going to
tell you one thing about them. If you want to know, you can watch the concert.
If you don’t want to know, you can still watch the concert because I said so. And
if you’re not a fan of Aimie Atkinson (in which case you’re probably either insane
or my editor), why are you even reading this review?
Aimie sings five songs, accompanied by pianist Lee Freeman.
She starts off with Don’t Rain on My Parade from Funny Girl. (There’s a
lot of rain in musicals. If it’s not raining on your parade, it’s raining on
Prom Night or in Spain or there’s A Little Fall of Rain or you’re just singing
in it. I mean, don’t these writers know it’s bad luck to use an umbrella
indoors? Six even has a raining monarch…) This is a really hard song for
most people because of the intervals (intervals between the pitches of the notes,
not between the acts of a musical, this song would be easy if there was
a 20 minute interval in the middle of it) and it’s quite fast so some people
stab at the notes and don’t hit them cleanly. Aimie’s notes are cleaner than my
hands post-sanitiser. Well-supported, perfectly pitched, gorgeous sound. She
has energy, she has personality, she has comic timing… why aren’t I jealous? I
loved it.
Aimie’s second song is from Les Miserables. (So you
know it’s one of two, but I’m not saying which one.) I don’t know what those crazy
casting directors were doing, turning Aimie down for this role. She is perfect.
I actually nearly sang this for my drama school audition. I was thinking about
singing a female song (I’m the most terrible show-off) and my friend said I had
to sing that one. But there were a couple of other songs I wanted to sing more.
So I didn’t sing it and like literally on my first day of drama
school (or maybe more like my third but first sounds better), the Head was
saying how everyone sings that song and he’s fed up with it and he never
lets anyone in who sings that song. He might have been joking, but... yeah. Ignoring
people can lead to great things!
But getting back to Aimie, this is a song you hear a lot but
this is a really emotional, heartfelt performance. It’s not just about singing
one of the best songs in musical theatre, Aimie really gets into the character
of and makes me believe she is the character. She makes me feel like I haven’t
heard the song before. (And I have. I really have. Maybe you can’t get
into drama school by singing it, but they can’t kick you out for singing it
once you get there.)
The next song is from a musical I haven’t heard of (I do
remember what it is, I’m just not spoiling the surprise). I would so love to
play Aimie’s role. I want to wear her costume, it would be so much fun! The
song includes spinging, but Aimie does proper spinging. Not the crap kind
people do when they can’t sing very well, the real proper intentional kind.
Aimie spings with style.
After that, we have something really special. An Aimie
Atkinson world premiere. I just hope she writes the rest of the musical because
she is seriously talented and it’s not fair! Beautiful lyrics, beautiful music.
The piano accompaniment could maybe use a tiny bit more work, but the vocal
line is stunning.
Aimie closes the show with a song from another musical she
was in. Now usually, I would say don’t under any circumstances close with a gentle,
sad song. Go for something flashy. The
only exception is if you’re one of those people who makes every song flashy.
Not like putting extra notes in and dancing around like I do when I’ve had too
much oxygen (I only drink mocktails, I’m bad enough sober so it’s got to be the
oxygen), just like making the emotion so powerful and so hard-hitting it feels
just like a really dramatic song because you get a big adrenaline rush. Not
many people can do that. Aimie does it in this song.
Next week is Jordan Luke Gage. AKA Jordan Looks Gorge. His
singing isn’t bad either.
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