Review of Woman to Woman at The Anvil, Basingstoke

Some things don’t help themselves, do they? Take the show I saw at The Anvil on Friday, November 25: Woman to Woman. In just three words, it alienates the entire male population. Frankly, I’d half a mind to be professionally faux-offended because that’s what you do these days to demonstrate your right-on, rainbows-with-bended-knee inclusivity credentials.

But I went along anyway, part of an almost-full house of non-young people keen to remember who these ladies are. So, who are they?

Well, first off there’s Beverley Craven, who had a huge hit with Promise Me in the 90s, along with several other catchy ditties that take you “back to the day".

Next, there’s Judie Tzuke, she of the big blonde perm, who had that hit in 1979. No, I couldn’t remember its name either, but I knew that I knew her.

Then there’s Julia Fordham who, apparently, has also made some records.

And finally Rumer, about whom so much has been said that you can’t tell fact from fiction, and who’s best known for several successful albums and her work with Jools Holland.

The gig was opened by a nervous Judie Tzuke, who proceeded to fluff the higher notes, much to her own embarrassment. Frankly, she “had a ‘mare,” struggling with her voice and occasionally seeming to have difficulty breathing. Nevertheless, you can’t take against such a humble, smiley person, so she was easily forgiven.

Each of the ladies then introduced their numbers in turn, usually with something along the lines of “I wrote this during a bad time in my life, when my partner had an in-growing toenail and the cat had died” before launching into some “gloom tune” indiscernible from the last one and all utterly forgettable, hence why I won’t bother name-checking any of them.

Beverley Craven was the exception, not only having the strongest material (her song Woman to Woman gave the show its name) but with a caustic sense of humour that brought some much-needed variety to proceedings. Don’t misunderstand me - they’ve all got fabulous voices, it’s just that most of the material was so humdrum that great voices just weren’t enough.

They finished the show with an encore of their hits and I have to admit I was wrong: the evening was inclusive, I wasn’t offended and many in the audience loved it, men and women. For me, though, that’s the best I can say about it: inoffensive.

Chris Parkinson-Brown