Lisa Marie Presley, Bush Hall, W12 - review

Lisa Marie Presley, Bush Hall, W12 - review

As the daughter of Elvis and ex-wife of Michael Jackson, Lisa Marie Presley’s CV reads more remarkably than most. Her music, however, has remained something of a footnote.

With Storm & Grace, her recently released third album, the 44-year-old has made a late bid to change that. Written in collaboration with Mercury nominee Richard Hawley, it’s a strong set of country-rock ballads that suggests she’s ready to take this music malarkey a bit more seriously.

As if there wasn’t enough rock’n’roll pedigree onstage at her first London show, Al Berry, nephew of the legendary Chuck, joined her on bass. The crowd, filled with men of a certain vintage wearing leather jackets and liberal amounts of hair gel, applauded Presley’s every move.

Sometimes with good reason. New tracks Over Me and You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet were a showcase for her low southern tones, while Weary was a gorgeous, stately ballad.

However, the feeling remained that she’s essentially an ordinary singer from an extraordinary lineage.

Things moved slowly between songs — a little less conversation, a little more action, please — and Presley lacks her father’s kinetic energy as a performer: a bit of drum beating was as lively as things got.

Shots of tequila came out during the encore — but Presley needs to show more of a different kind of spirit if she’s ever to transcend her surname.



[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Lisa Marie Presley – review
Bush Hall, London

It's Lisa Marie Presley's first ever UK gig and she is battling a cold. But having spent 44 years in the shadow of a rock'n'roll revolutionary and surviving a marriage to the King of Pop, she's not about to let a bit of phlegm get to her.

Her nerves, though, just might. The glamour of her black and satin outfit and perfectly coiffured tumbling tresses can't hide the terror in those so-familiar, kohl-ringed eyes as she starts to sing. Feline and wary, by the closing notes of opener So Long, her relief is palpable.

Ironically, Presley, who's been doggedly pursuing a career in music for almost a decade, should be bristling with confidence. Her new album, Storm & Grace, has not only disinterred her husky, honeyed voice from an AOR grave, but seen her claim her southern soul heritage and win the credibility that's always evaded her. Joined by a five-piece band styled like Victorian undertakers and including husband Michael Lockwood on guitar and Chuck Berry's nephew Al Berry on bass, Presley wallows in the atmospheric warmth of Weary, her rich tone recalling the father she seems to appeal to as her eyes turn skyward while singing: "Can you hear me now?" But there's no sense of entitlement – just old-fashioned humility. Even the spooky, Scientology-baiting single You Ain't See Nothin' Yet is conveyed with hope, not arrogance.

"I'm not very good at promoting myself, I'm rubbish at it," Presley says. She's self-sacrificing too, allowing Ed Harcourt to join her for the dreary Soften the Blows, and an encore of Tom Petty's Need to Know feels like an out-of-place gift to her band. But with their support and a besotted crowd before her, Presley grows more comfortable in her own skin, losing herself in her music and downing a shot of tequila. With a hankie in one hand and bouquets in the other, she leaves this corner of west London feeling a little like Vegas.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]