Patti Smith at St Giles In The Fields

Patti Smith

St Giles In The Fields, 27 January 2011

Wow. This show will be the one to beat. And how appropriate it was staged in the rather sacred setting of a centuries old church because this really was music as a religious experience.

St Giles In The Fields stands in the heart of the city, just off Charing Cross Road. You can see it looking small but majestic while walking down Denmark Street, the stretch of shops otherwise known as London's Tin Pan Alley, the home to a wide assortment of stores selling sheet music, guitars and other instruments. Its tall but simple steeple is a small beacon of a little peace and respite from the bustling streets surrounding Oxford Street. It's no wonder then that Patti Smith, on a trip to London, discovered it one day while visiting Denmark Street and found some poetic solace in its tranquil atmosphere and impressive history.

It was here, she tells us, that John Milton's daughter Mary was baptised back in the 17th century and she felt overwhelmed by its modesty despite its impressive history. The experience was enough to not only inspire this show benefiting the church tonight but also the detective novel she's currently working on, which apparently begins within its hallowed stone walls. To demonstrate her affection for the little church in the big city she changes the lyrics of her opening song, In My Blakean Years, to tell the story of its discovery by her all those years ago. You can tell from these first moments that this is going to be a special show in a very special setting.

I really don't know why I've never gone to see Patti Smith before because I've had many opportunities in the past. I can only assume that when I was younger I was under the rather silly delusion that seeing older artists was a poor second to seeing them in the prime of their youth. How wrong could I be. I've certainly been to enough gigs now to disprove that notion. But sometimes certain things are meant to be because this was certainly a magical night to first see Patti live.

Titled "An evening of poetry and music", it didn't stray far from the description. Accompanied by her daughter Jessie on piano, a young man called Michael Campbell on guitar and percussion and the ever colourful Patrick Wolf on harp and viola, there are many classic songs, Patti introducing them by reading excepts from her book Just Kids, telling stories of her late husband, MC5's Fred "Sonic" Smith, and best friend the artist Robert Mapplethorpe, each excerpt, story or piece of poetry revealing the heart and often the inspiration for the song. Although in photos and interviews she seems tall, lanky and suitably deep and serious, the quintessential artist and poet in fact, in the flesh she's surprisingly small, funny and adorable. Looking at her giggling at a joke or memory of Robert, she appears a lot younger than in recent photos I’ve seen, perhaps it’s because she exudes a youthful , playful spirit that the camera fails to capture, I don’t know, but it's enchanting. She seems so much more down to earth and accessible than I ever thought someone so iconic could.

She reads pieces from the book about Robert's early childhood, when she was first in New York with him, when he heard Because The Night on the radio ("Patti, you got famous before me!"), when his lover died and the last photo he ever took of her and her daughter, Jesse. Not surprisingly there are many songs inspired by her late friend: Wing, Paths That Cross and Wild Leaves, written for his birthday during his illness. There's a lovely moment at the start as Patti keeps faltering, forgetting the lyrics, laughing. She then messes up again in the middle and beautifully tells us how Robert loved to laugh. Even when he was dying he demanded she not be down and so this song, written for him but never given to him because she felt it was too sad, was sung for him now and was even better when she got it wrong because it made people laugh "and Robert loved to laugh" she smiles lovingly.

She sings so many of my favourites: Dancing Barefoot, Pissing In The River, Ghost Dance, Because The Night... and her voice is chillingly good, all the more powerful and special echoing in this tiny candle-lit church with the stars shining through the large windows. One poem she read that she didn't write (I can't recall the author) was particularly haunting, with the band atmospherically backing her as she slowly but passionately told the tale. The audience hung on her every word in silence, in fact at the end she asks if we are still out there, she was afraid we had left because of the reverential silence and she begins laughing at the thought of her standing there talking and telling jokes only to discover that the audience had deserted her. She also speaks of her love of St Giles In The Fields telling us the day she found sanctuary in it. It's interesting that the woman who sang "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine" could find solace in a place of religious worship, but as she reveals in her book she is a spiritual person and admires Jesus as a person, so I guess it makes sense.

One of the highlights of the show for me though was not one of her own classic songs but a cover of another of my favourites: Neil Young's Helpless, which is beautiful and of course thrilling to me. She tells us beforehand that the song always makes her think of Fred and asks us to give him a little thought too when she's singing it, which only makes it sweeter.

At the end of the programme she admits to us that she doesn't want to go out and wait for the encore because it's cold outside. So she asks us to pretend she's left the stage, which we do, roaring with appreciation when she mimics leaving and returning to the stage (or altar). "You are certainly good sports" she laughs. There are more giggles during People Have The Power, with a few forgotten lyrics and false starts, in fact at the end she admits it's the craziest version of the song she's ever sung but in spite of this it's incredibly powerful and has the whole crowd singing along, like a church choir appropriately, helping her along and aptly demonstrating the title in its own little way. She said that Fred came in one day while she was peeling potatoes and told her "Patti, people have the power - write it" and that it was a notion he truly believed in. She dedicates the song to Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor who sparked the recent revolution when he set himself on fire.

After it ends she walks down the aisle through the crowd, her head bowed, almost embarrassed by all the love and the standing ovation. But she deserved it because this really was wonderfully powerful and incredibly special, and without doubt a fantastic first Patti Smith concert. I really can’t imagine I’ll go to a better show this year.