Round-up of In Celebration of My Sisters

So instead of shaking a leg with the young 'uns down in Coventry, I opted for the more mature option. In Celebration of My Sisters returned to the Royal Festival Hall this year, and turned out to be quite a nice affair. The show was hosted by Brenda Emmanus, who looked stunning in a beige Gavin Pierre Medford dress, and Curtis Walker, who I haven't seen in years and had actually forgotten how funny he is. Highlights for me included Yolanda Brown, the young saxophonist who seems to be improving with every performance. She performed two R&B tracks before closing her set with a lively percussion-heavy Fela Kuti song -  great sfuff! Yolanda was followed by the battle of the Lovers Rock vocalists, comprising of veteran reggae vocalist, Winston Reedy of 'Dim the Lights' fame, and another singer whose name escapes me. This surprisingly turned out to be the high point of the night for me. Decked in crisp white suits and bearing red roses, they sent the female members of the audience into a frenzy with their dulcet tones. Alexander O Neal was the headline act, but I'm sorry to report after my previous big-ups that his performance was really bizarre. First of all, he didn't have a band, and considering all the other performers had a backing band, this came across as really shoddy and unprofessional. And then it all went downhill from there really. He stumbled and mumbled through every song looking twitchy and unfocused. At one point he even left the stage altogether mid-song, leaving a shocked and confused looking audience. Very strange, let's hope that maybe he just had a little too much errr... cough medication that day, and will be right as rain ASAP.