Marianne Faithfull at The Barbican

Marianne Faithfull
The Barbican, 23 May 2011

Having recently read Marianne Faithfull's autobiography and listened to her entire back catalogue, I'm more convinced than ever that she's not just a rock icon but a national treasure. Seeing her live tonight for the first time (on Bob Dylan's 70th birthday no less - she even mentions this herself) just confirms the fact for me because Marianne, at 64 years of age, is just as magnificent as I imagined.

When she first totters on to the stage (well she is in her 60s and not as nimble as she once was), dressed in a black suit and white satin shirt looking very Marlene Dietrich, I'm surprised at just how petite Ms Faithfull is. Yes she's a little heavier than she was during her waif-like youth but she looks remarkably preserved, elegant and beautiful, and under the lights I occasionally see the angelic, full-lipped nymphet of the 1960s.

Beginning the show with the title track of her new album, Horses And High Heels, the first thing to hit me is just how powerful and full the voice is: husky, deep and cigarette-ravished, it's surprising just how great it still sounds. In fact it makes sense that she's worked with the likes of Tom Waits, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and covered Mark Lanegan, because she occupies the same gothic, dark space they do and the world-worn voice certainly helps convey that pain and emotion and is a big part of why she's such a first-class interpreter of other people's songs (as well as performing and writing her own). Speaking of Lanegan she mentions him next as the co-writer of the song The Stations, along with Greg Dulli who she amusingly mispronounces as Dull-y (instead of Doo-li). This, she says, is a song about The Rapture which was supposed to take us all last Saturday but of course didn't, despite forgetting some lyrics (thankfully she has a music stand by her side throughout with the lyrics to all the songs) it sounds just as menacing and desperate as The Gutter Twins' fantastic original. I must admit, I got chills. It's always a wonderful experience to see one of your favourite artists covering another that is close to your heart and Marianne certainly did the song justice.

Throughout the concert she introduces each song with a little background: that it was written with Nick Cave and about all the people who disappear without a trace (There Is A Ghost); about a relationship sadly gone wrong (Why Did We Have To Part) or about her simple life these days living in Paris (Prussian Blue). She shares these little tidbits with a smile and helps give new meaning to the songs when she sings them. This maybe wouldn't work with other artists but with Marianne you feel she's sharing some of her hard-won wisdom with you through her music. She even says that she thinks of The Decemberists' song The Crane Wife, which she covered on her album Easy Come Easy Go, as an old Buddy Holly tune and I start to listen to it in a new way, remarkable given how many times I've heard it and yet she's right.

The first half of the show is mainly devoted to her last couple of albums but the second half is filled with, let's face it, the songs everyone wants to hear, starting with Sister Morphine, which she says she wrote with Mick Jagger "yes, yes, the wondrous Mick Jagger, blah, blah blah" she laughs, "but he only wrote half, I wrote the other half!" It's a triumph that people now recognise it as her song given all the battles to finally get her name on the credits (despite the fact she recorded it first). Tonight Marianne's version is so heartfelt and full of passion, there's no doubting it is really is her song, even Mick himself can't portray the same feeling.

Amid very loud, rocking versions of Broken English and Working Class Hero (the older lady beside me has her fingers in her ears the whole time, poor dear), which make full use of the fact that guitar hero Wayne Kramer (yes, that's right, he of MC5 fame) and gives Marianne a chance to sit down during his guitar work-outs, she also treats us to her first ever single, and perhaps her most famous song, As Tears Go By. I had wondered if she would sing it but sing it she did and her older voice gave it new depth and meaning.

The main set ends with her version of the Roger Waters-penned Incarceration Of A Flower Child, apparently written back in 1968 and hidden away until Marianne begged and "groveled" for him to let her record it because, she said, it sounded as if it had been written just for her and it really does. After a standing ovation she returns to sing her 70s hit The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan but the best moment of the night for me comes when all the band leave the stage, save the guitarist, and she performs a beautifully moving version of a song Tom Waits wrote for her, Strange Weather. It made me think that while seeing Marianne performing and rocking out with a band is indeed a huge treat, it would also be a wonderful thing to see her return to her 60s roots and perform acoustically with everything stripped down and unadorned and her voice the main focus of attention. But wishful thinking aside, there really was nothing to complain about with this show, it was a pure pleasure the whole way through. Even Marianne was excited, coming out for the encore she told us "I tried to be modest and humble but I'm so, so pleased how this show turned out!" she said beaming, even jumping up and down at one point. But, it certainly wasn't unwarranted, she had everything to be pleased about, it was a just about perfect show. Thank you Marianne.