I saw the Gossip at Melkweg in Amsterdam on June 27th. I must confess to having been slightly underwhelmed previously by the brief footage on TV of the lead singer Beth Ditto jumping round on stages with audiences going wild. I was in no doubt that "Standing in the Way of Control" is a fine pop song — energetic, catchy and well structured — and that Ditto's vocal performance on the track, a club favourite made widely popular in the UK by its use on the Channel 4 drama Skins, was very powerful.
But what was all the fuss about?
Everything I saw or read seemed to focus on her weight and her attitude toward body-image. So she's very, very fat and she's cool with it? That doesn't make her cool. That makes her — well, fat and cool with it. I wondered why she was voted Coolest Rock Star on the Planet by NME, and put it down to NME being — well, not quite what it used to be.
The Melkweg has to qualify as one of the oddest, but coolest venues I've ever been to see a live band in. It was possible to stroll through a big crowd to the front unjostled and unchallenged, climb up to the balcony, and occupy a prime spot with a full and uninterrupted view of the stage. A more relaxed venue you could not wish to find. Then...
Beth Ditto appeared onstage. Beth Ditto pounced onstage. Beth Ditto leapt onstage. Beth Ditto exploded onstage in a clinging low-cut shiny pink dress and opened her mouth to release a voice the likes of which I have never, ever heard live.
Powerful, strong, expressive, angry, soulful, energetic - these adjectives don't do her justice, vocally or physically. I was immediately reminded of footage of Janis Joplin — at the height of her powers, and of Aretha Franklin, two strong female vocalists from the past who have since become legendary. I was reminded also of punk stars Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene.
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