Fifth Stop: Manchester

July 10, 2007
Barbra appeared on stage this evening in Manchester, U.K. for the fifth performance of her current European concert tour. Barbra's U.K. opening marks her return after a ten day vacation, needed  to rest her irreplaceable voice. The strain of her recent performances, which included two outdoor shows in less than ideal weather conditions, forced the cancellation of her date in Stockholm. The first images coming out of Manchester show Barbra looking fit and well tanned from her holiday in the Italian sun.
 

Barbra Streisand @ M.E.N. Arena
by Paul Taylor


It was a bizarre picture to conjure with... Barbra Streisand wandering through Manchester and calling at a chippie to sample the local cuisine.

"And how could I come to Manchester and not have some black pudding?" she told us unconvincingly.

If Streisand commands slavish loyalty from her fans - the first heckled "I love you" took only a matter of seconds - she repays it by doing some dedicated homework on her audience.

So within hours of arriving in Manchester for the first time, she was able to declare that she knew it was the first industrialised city and had "the world's most popular football club".

Cue disgruntled appeals from the city of Liverpool to which she naively responded "What's the name of that team?"

Ouch!

If al this "improvised" patter can be seen rolling by, word for word, on an autocue hanging from the arena roof, then, what the heck, this is showbiz.

The serious side to this meticulous preparation is that it is the way the 65-year star's manages her life-long battle with stage fright.

She rose imperiously into view in the middle of the stage just as her 58-piece orchestra reached the crescendo of a brassy Broadway overture.

Clad in black evening dress and sparkling necklace, that famous decolletage on view, she looked a good few years below qualifying for a bus pass.

Discernible

As for the voice, it remains full, mellow, expressive as of old, the slight fraying of the years only just discernible. She can have few doubts about her vocal abilities to have started off with a song as demanding as Starting Here, Starting Now.

Then it was on through a set of standards - The Way We Were, Evergreen, My Man, People. Half way through the first set, she was joined by four young Broadway hunks for a skit about Streisand's age.

Lame and scripted, but the audience lapped it up.

Everything about Streisand is on a grand scale. She is the best-selling female artist in history, her mantelpiece groaning not just with Grammys but two Oscars. Add to that the rarity value.

She did no large tours between 1967 and 1994, has never toured Europe properly before now and, since 1999, her every outing has been seen as a farewell to showbiz.

Manchester lapped up this close encounter with a genuine legend, with 14,000 punters paying from £75 to £550 for seats.

Stretch limos probably could not be had for love nor money in the city last night as fans - mainly middle-aged couple decked out in full regalia and a smattering of gay men - did the evening in style.

"People," sang Barbra. "People who need people, are the luckiest people in the world."

Last night she had 14,000 of them, all eating out of her hands.