DUSTY SPRINGFIELD

Last night on the ship's music channel, I happened upon a Dusty Springfield concert, taped at Royal Albert Hall in 1979 before a live audience (and Princess Margaret, who looked as if she'd rather be spending the night with a jar of peanut butter and the Queen's Corgis). I had forgotten how much I love this woman (Dusty, not Margaret). She always came across as unpretentious and normal, and on stage, she almost had an awkward quality that was tremendously endearing.  The concert, actually, wasn't all that. Her backup singers were very obviously sight reading, and her trumpet player sounded as if he'd had the 3 Bean Casserole for dinner every night for a week.  But Dusty was glorious,  basking in her fans' adulation, resplendent in an almost-unfortunate white jumpsuit (hey, it was 1979!) and sounding, if not quite as wonderful as she did on record, pretty damn good. I was slightly disappointed she did a truncated version of "I Only Want To Be With You" (and it was in a medley, and I HATE medleys!), but her "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself" was even better than the original. My favorite moment came at the end as an encore, after Dusty had changed into a purple sparkly morning coat. A melancholic version of a not-so-great song by Peter Allen called "Quiet Please" (supposedly written for Judy Garland), steeped in life and love and happiness and regret. Enjoy.