The angelic voice of Antony Hegarty of Anthony and the Johnsons, a six piece band, pervaded the lovely red seated Symphony Hall in Birmingham last Friday night finding its way deep into our consciousness transporting us into a realm of heavenly delights, far beyond what we had anticipated. Sitting astride a grand piano, long black hair hanging around his shoulders, dressed in black and white, he sings with an artistic eloquence, with a passion that makes the heart beat faster.
Originally from Chichester, Sussex, England, Anthony and his small team of excellent musicians reveal little of themselves. The lights were deliberately kept low most of the time, as if he is saying “listen, no need to look at me.” I wondered whether that showed some shyness, a wish to keep out of the public eye when away from the stage, weight conscious or all of that, and more. I suspect he simply wants to preserve some kind of private life, some sense of normality, often lost for stars in his business.
He drew widely from his three albums with Hope, There’s Someone, You are My Sister and For Today I am a Boy included from the Mercury Prize winning breakthrough album “I am a Bird Now” that features themes of love and bisexuality. He paused for a few seconds before launching into a song, then delivered it with an intense determination to squeeze the depth of meaning out of every lyric.
From Hope, There’s Someone
Oh I’m scared of the middle place
Between light and nowhere
I don’t want to be the one
Left in there, left in there
You have to listen to believe. Once or twice, he would stop singing after a line or two and comment on the song such as “this one’s a bit morbid isn’t it.” Then a couple of fresh breaths as the angel launched into putting his heart into the words. In a funny sort of way, Anthony is a kind of natural successor to the likes of the beloved 75 year old Leonard Cohen. Mind you Anthony and Leonard’s voices are as different as chalk and cheese. (Incidentally Anthony’s rendition of Cohen’s “If it be Your Will” belongs to the higher heavenly realms).
Unlike legendary Bob Dylan, 68 last week, who gives a concert as if the stadium consisted of empty seats, Anthony engaged with us. “I was brought up a Catholic but now I am a sort of Pagan…We need a matriarchal society. …If President Obama would listen more to his feminine side when ordering the bombing of Afghanistan, he would think “oh my God. These are somebody’s kids.”
He continued his show with sublime renditions from songs from h is new album The Crying Light, poetic lyrics on love, life and death including Kiss My Name and Another World. You hear the same vulnerable intensity on stage as on the CD. Songs like Shake that Devil communicate raw power and it’s the range of communication of the voice that held our attention with effortless ease.
Anthony came across camp, really camp (camp means theatrically gay) showing in the way he moved his hands, brushes his hair back and ran off and on stage); he’s English in that English sort of way, lives in New York City, naturally self deprecating and a beautiful vibrato that haunts the soul. He told us that last year when he was speaking during a concert in Manchester, England, somebody in the audience shouted out to him “Get on with the fucking singing.”
Anthony said he responded (in pure camp)” “Oh, you should come and live with me.” The packed hall roared. I loved the eccentricity – a voice from heaven, a poet songwriter, a transgender sexuality, down to earth humour and a dedicated feminist. That signals a diverse inner life – and that is a typically British understatement. He said he had a dream that Jesus would return as a little girl in Afghanistan. She would walk on water to show she was the new Jesus. Bless him.
He is chipping away at the out of touch patriarchy of power. The two gay men holding hands sitting next to Dominika and I were glowing with happiness over Anthony. So were Dominika and I and the rest in the hall. We were celebrating two years approaching of our relationship.
With such uninhibited freshness and love of soul filled communication, Anthony received a huge ovation at the end of the show. Naturally. It is a rare singer who can communicate such intimacy to a packed hall.
Check his music out on You Tube.