Review: Ruby Turner excites arts centre audience

Ruby Turner brings a lot of passion to her singing and her upbeat performance excited many people in the arts centre audience on Saturday.

R&B and soul singer Ruby has been compared to Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin. She is a favourite at Ronnie Scott’s in London and has toured a lot with Jools Holland.

Here she was performing with a band which did not complement her talent. The volume of the backing music was just too loud, almost drowning out her voice on certain songs. The drummer’s heavy right hand was particularly annoying.

However, she carried the show with her enthusiasm and variety of material. She is a quite prolific songwriter and over the years Ruby’s songs have been covered by artists such as Lulu, Yazz and Maxi Priest.

She performed a few of the numbers from her latest gospel album, which pleased her many fans in the audience.

Peter Gawthorpe