DUFFY
Back in the Sixties there was no shortage of big-voiced, big-haired, slightly
tragic female singers with a break in their heart and an orchestra in their
pocket: Dusty Springfield, Bobbie Gentry and Nancy Sinatra are a few that
come to mind. With Amy Winehouse suffering severe husband withdrawal, it’s
up to the North Wales villager Duffy to take on the spiritual mantle of such
legends – and she has the voice, the hair and, most importantly, the mascara
to do it. She has collaborated with the former Suede guitarist Bernard
Butler and is now signed to A&M. Her first single, the epic lonely
hearts-friendly tearjerker Rockferry, is released on Monday, and Radio 2
will broadcast a half-hour Duffy special on Dec 14 (7pm). She’s polished but
bruised, heartfelt but with more than a touch of stardust camp, and she has
a grounded maturity that will stand her in good stead for the road ahead.
“There’s a side of me that’s trying to hold it together,” she says. “But
then there’s a side that just wants to scream, run out onstage and say: ‘I’m
here!’ ” Duffy plays the Royal Festival Hall (supporting the Magic Numbers)
on Dec 5; Central Station, Wrexham, Dec 6; and the Pigalle Club, London, Dec
16 www.iamduffy.com
EBONY BONES
Imagine, if you will, the sound of what Amy Winehouse looks like – a
hard-as-nails Fifties chick with a touch of the Hammer Horrors and a
menacing caw – and you’ve got Ebony Bones. Real name Ebony Thomas and a
former soap star (she was in Family Affairs on Channel 5 for more than seven
years), Bones, 25, has been reborn as a pop superheroine with the powers of
“sassiness” and “coming up with catchy songtitles”, such as the wonderful
I’m Ur Future X Wife.
Like Winehouse she is a fan of retro dresses and towering hair, but her
dresses are matched with lurid tights and her hairpieces are bright pink and
made of feathers. She sounds like Siouxsie Soux backed by a disco surf band
and with two equally in-your-face backing vocalists – you can’t imagine her
crying off because her husband got banged up. Rather, you’d imagine Ebony
Bones would see that as a perfect opportunity to flog his most expensive
possessions on eBay and get the hell out of Dodge. Ebony Thomas, on the
other hand, probably wouldn’t let herself get into that kind of scrape in
the first place.
Ebony Bones plays Greenspaces December 1 and Catch, London, on Dec 22. www.myspace.com/ebonybones
ADELE
Brit School graduate, check; ridiculously powerful jazz-soul voice that seems
to come out of nowhere, check; reputation for being a gobby Cockney sparrer,
check. Yes, Adele Adkins, 19, is Winehouse redux. Except that she’s not. For
one thing, she loves food. “I read a comment on YouTube that I thought would
upset me,” she said in a recent interview. “ ‘Test pilot for pies’ – but
I’ve always been a size 14-16, and been fine with it.” More importantly,
even though she has recorded a Spectoresque-brass song with Mark Ronson, her
forthcoming debut album, 19, will mark her out as a unique talent, the rest
of it being a collection of quite frankly spine-tingling ballads awash with
strings and on just the right side of powerful. She is signed to the edgy
label XL, home to leftfield talents such as Radiohead, M.I.A. and the White
Stripes and is “the first artist we’ve ever had playlisted on Radio 2”,
according to the label’s founder, Richard Russell. Adele plays the BBC Radio
2 Music Club, London, W9, on Dec 9. www.adele.tv
ALELA DIANE
Like the harpist Joanna Newsom, Alela Diane was born and raised in the onetime
California Gold Rush mining town of Nevada City – and the two are friends,
sharing a love of the blues, bluegrass and folk music. But unlike the rather
shrilly voiced Newsom, Diane’s voice is a smoky thing, conjuring an
altogether earthier sensuality as it coils around her black-eyed songs.
Diane says that her earliest experiences of music were listening to her
parents singing folk songs in the kitchen, which may explain the ease with
which her songs hark back to such greats as Joni Mitchell. When she left
home to go to college, her parents divorced and Diane was left “rootless and
heartbroken” – hence the sweet sorrow and homesick longing that runs through
the songs on her debut album, The Pirate’s Gospel (Names Records). Alela
Diane plays the Purcell Rooms on Dec 11. www.aleladiane.com
ONE LITTLE PLANE
With her cute moniker and even cuter singing voice, One Little Plane, aka
Kathryn Bint, from Chicago, could be responsible for some sickeningly
cloying music. Thankfully, there are enough barbs and honest admissions in
her songwriting to stop things getting sticky, as well as some
clear-channelled electric guitar on songs such as Sunshine Kid and
deliciously shaky bits of percussion (rainsticks, tambour etc). Onstage,
she’s often accompanied by Kieran Hebden of Four Tet on guitar, and you may
already have heard Bint singing on the Four Tet remix of Caribou’s Melody
Day or performing at the Homefires festival in London last June. Humble
beginnings, certainly, but the start of something sweet.
One Little Plane plays the Purcell Rooms on Dec 11. www.myspace.com/onelittleplane
BRIDGETTE AMOFAH
It must be no easy thing to step into KT Tunstall’s shoes, but that is what
Amofah, 23, did when she joined Oi Va Voi as lead vocalist. Unlike
Tunstall’s Fife folkie beginnings, however, the London-born Amofah’s early
years were spent passing Amy Winehouse in the corridors of the Brit School
in Croydon. After graduating she flirted with musical theatre, but quickly
realised that hoofing was not the career for her. Since then she has
travelled the world with Oi Va Voi, all the while working on her own
material. With influences as diverse as Minnie Ripperton, Fiest and Ivor
Cutler, Amofah’s chocolaty soul pop somehow manages to marry Bill Withers
with Dido and still sound great. Bridgette Amofah is at the Tricycle
Theatre, London NW6(Dec 2), and 93 feet East (Dec 12). www.myspace.com/bridgetteamofah
LAURA MARLING
If you like your young chanteuses to be shrill, skittish frock-wearers, served
up with a dollop of Estuary enunciation, then you’re probably not Devendra
Banhart. This month the cosmic nabob of alt.folk elected to take Marling on
a bout of European shows with him, throwing the 17-year-old from Reading and
her acoustic guitar into an environment a world away from the giddy
“all-age” concerts that first helped to win her a deal with Virgin. You
suspect this suited her fine. Her debut EP, London Town, released in May,
led to her being pegged as the M4 Corridor Joni Mitchell, though the more
recent EP My Manic and I has an altogether bleaker air. The odds against her
producing something remarkable before she hits 20 are shortening. Marling
plays Aunt Annie’s Porter House, Dublin on Wed.
LISA KNAPP
The Tooting-born Knapp was enjoying a typical adolescent Londoner’s journey
through the urban music styles of house, R&B and drum’n’bass when she
chanced upon a friend’s collection of English folk records. Mesmerised by
the haunting purity and sheer quality of singers such as Shirley Collins,
Anne Briggs and Sandy Denny, Knapp dug out the violin she had played as a
child, starting doing floor spots in local pubs, and thought about going
professional when she was struck down by serious health problems.
Her career would probably have stopped there had not the major rock producer
Youth heard one of her demo tracks playing in a studio in Denmark Street. He
subsequently worked on Knapp’s debut album Wild and Undaunted (Ear the the
Ground Records), a collection of traditional songs and original material.
Knapp is at the Magpie’s Nest, the Old Queen’s Head, London N1, on Dec 12
TAWIAH
Ever wondered who belts out Lily and Amy’s vocals when Mark Ronson hits the
road? This young lady. Yet another Brit School alumnus, the likeness to
Winehouse ends there. A tomboy with a voice to melt hearts and bring down
buildings, Tawiah is a veteran at 21, having backed artists such as Corinne
Bailey Rae, Eska and the Guillemots. The arrival of her solo EP has to be
one of 2008’s most anticipated events. Tawiah plays Cargo, London EC2. Dec
16. www.myspace.com/tawiah
AND FINALLY . . . TANIA ALBONI (OR IS IT AMY WINEHOUSE?)
“It’s not just the songs,” says Tania Alboni, a professional Amy Winehouse
impersonator. “I do all the head flicks and the skirt ruffling – all the
mannerisms.”
Until a few weeks ago, Winehouse had formed only part of Alboni’s set – she
can also turn her hand to Cher, Shania Twain, and, impressively, all of
Abba. But since the release of Valerie, Winehouse bookings have gone through
the roof. Currently, Alboni charges an average of £800 for an “Amy”, but
it’s a fee that varies according to the size of the venue. It’s a
development that thrills Alboni. “I wasn’t a huge fan of the other people I
impersonated, but I played Amy’s album Back to Black constantly, ever since
I got it for Christmas last year.”
The 30-year-old singer has dyed her hair black and bought a hairpiece, but
says that she doesn’t think her voice is as “amazing” as that of her nominal
doppelgänger. However, fans who have turned up to Winehouse shows only to
find them cancelled will be reassured to learn that her imitator prides
herself on her punctuality. “I’m a one-woman antidrug squad,” she adds
helpfully.
At her recent Birmingham NIA show, the real Winehouse responded to hecklers by
suggesting that her husband – currently awaiting trial for GBH – might have
something to say about all this when he “gets out”. Alboni is married too –
to a Simply Red tribute act. So does she adopt a similar line when
confronted with demanding punters? No – and, in terms of forging a
reputation for herself as “the Amy you can rely on”, it’s probably for the
best.
On New Year’s Eve she’s playing “a restauranty pub in Leeds called the Black
Horse”. Tomorrow she’s at Room 66 in Glasgow. “I’m expanding the set all the
time,” enthuses Alboni. “Especially now that you can get a whole karaoke CD
of Amy Winehouse songs.” www.spotoneventsdirect.co.uk
