The Vinyl Word: Betty Wright RIP

As if this week could get any worse, we now hear of the death of Betty Wright at the age of just 66. Betty made some great records, including of course 'Clean Up Woman' and 'Tonight's The Night', but also many others from age 14 onwards. She was also a dynamic performer. She appeared at the Jazz Cafe and the Assembly Hall in Islington just seven months apart in 2012/13 and was great on both occasions. I wrote about these shows on The Vinyl Word at the time and, as a tribute, I am reproducing these reviews with some of the photos.
Of her Jazz Cafe show in July, 2012 I wrote:
'Betty Wright is one hell of a woman and a dynamic soul performer, as she showed at the Jazz Cafe last night. The Miami based singer had her first major hit Clean Up Woman over 40 years ago but she is still creating high class original music today: her recent album Betty Wright: The Movie, recorded with The Roots and featuring input from Joss Stone, Snoop Dogg and Lenny Williams among others, has picked up positive reviews.
Wearing a big Afro, short spangly dress and high heeled suede thigh boots, Betty stormed her way through a near two hour high energy set of new and old material. She has personality in spades and a great sense of humour. "Do I look like a male basher?" she asked. Well, yes, maybe!
Kicking off with her 1988 hit After The Pain she got the females in the audience going by urging them to join her in repeating "That's the way I like it." She moved onto In The Middle Of The Game (Don't Change The Play), a track from The Movie album, before rocking into her 1974 UK hit Shoorah Shoorah, written by Allen Toussaint. After an exquisite version of Tonight Is The Night (allegedly about her first sexual experience) she told the story of how she had fought - and won - a legal battle when she found out it had been sampled in I Wanna Sex You Up by Color Me Bad and used in the movie New Jack City.
Betty slowed things down next with another track from her recent album - Go - an emotional and intense song about domestic abuse. She seemed almost in tears as she acted out the fear and tension of being beaten by an abusive partner. Then it was back to the old days with a fantastic version of Clean Up Woman, with some James Brown style Licking Stick/Soul Power additions. Her last two numbers were her 80s hits Keep Love New and No Pain No Gain - both of them performed with great power and not a little humour. Her encore - a rather cacophonous tribute to Michael Jackson - was something of an anti climax, but overall this was a quite brilliant show, and definitely my gig of the year so far. Betty's backing band were excellent, as were her female vocal backing threesome, comprising her daughters.'

The following February she appeared in Islington and this is what I wrote:
'Just seven months after she stormed her way through a two hour set at the Jazz Cafe, Betty Wright was back in London last night, this time before a full house at the Islington Assembly Hall. It was another high energy set, with a mix of well known and not so familiar songs, and she bounded around the stage singing at full voice, occasionally emitting a high pitched squeal, with fine backing from her band and backing singers. The Afro hair-do we saw last time was replaced by long braids and this time she wore a spangly green top. The audience comprised a high proportion of black females who clearly loved her full-on 'women in charge' approach and knew her records by heart. Betty responded with a classy and hugely enjoyable set.
I'm not sure of the name of her first, eighties style soul number, (maybe someone can let me know), but she moved on to the disco flavoured Sinderella and then to one of the crowd favourites, After The Pain. Next was her up tempo early seventies hit Secretary (a number she didn't sing last time), followed by the slower Thank You For The Many Things You Do, her big New Orleans style hit Shoorah Shoorah and Keep Love New, a hit for her in the eighties. An extended 15 minute version of Tonight Is The Night followed - to the delight of women in the audience, with some mid-song rapping, excursions into I'll Take You There and even a bit of on-stage drumming, before moving on to her classic Clean Up Woman, which once again went down a storm. Finally it was another crowd favourite No Pain No Gain and then what seemed to be an impromptu encore of Smother Me With Your Love.
Betty has been around for 47 years and it's a mark of how successful she has been over the years that most of the audience weren't even born when her career started. Last night's show was sold out and she is scheduled to appear again tomorrow. She's welcome in London any time.