Lulu has decided to call it a day at least on the touring part of her extraordinary career and equally extraordinary life and named this final tour “Champagne For Lulu”, after the phrase used by her co-stars in Ab Fab, and at 75 who could begrudge her. Becoming a star at the tender age of 16, she has had lots of hits, acting in both film and TV and even hit songwriting, as I said extraordinary. So tonight the audience of the Symphony Hall were treated to an audio and visual treat, spanning six decades of success including ‘The Boat That I Row’, ‘Boom Bang-A-Bang’, ‘The Man Who Sold The World’, sang with a video of David Bowie and inserting her own vocal on live on stage, as she also did with Tina Turner on the Lulu penned ‘I Don’t Wanna Fight’, ‘To Sir With Love’, and of course, ‘Shout’, alongside covers like ‘Heat Wave’, showing off just how good her voice still is. I would go so far as to say as good as ever! She has had a various special guests turn up for a bonus, tonight we had the pleasure of the voice Russell Watson, firstly performing a storming version of ‘You Raise Me Up’, and then duetting with Lulu on ‘Relight My Fire’.

At times she got very emotional, wiping tears from her eyes, and after showing a segment of An Audience With she did a long time ago, where she performed with her then ex-husband Maurice Gibb on piano, with a very emotional version of ‘First Of May’, and the glance she gave him toward the end of that song broke most of the audiences hearts. But it wasn’t all tears, there were smiles, singing, arm waving and clapping with an audience enthralled in the presence of whom you must call a legend, still at the top of her game. And if it is her last hurrah, we had the pleasure of witnessing it tonight in the Symphony Hall.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe