An Evening With M People’s Heather Small

Liverpool International Music Festival

Arts Club 

Liverpool 

31/07/22

As one of the first to arrive at the Arts Club the first thing I notice is how diverse the audience is, stupidly I think I may have been expecting the crowd to consist of 30 to 50 year olds hoping to recapture their youth, not unlike myself, but I was wrong as I realise the crowd is a mixed bag with many teens and people in their early 20s here too.

To open the evening ‘DJ Ronnie Herel‘ is spinning the decks for a set containing a mix of Soul & RnB classics as well as a couple of house bangers thrown in to help set the tone as the venue starts slowly filling to capacity.

The first support act is the fabulously talented and equally as funny singer ‘Terri Walker‘ and her infectious enthusiasm makes for great entertainment. She gives the crowd some heartfelt, high-energy songs that incorporated elements of rap, all while boasting an upbeat, contagious vibe.

(Terri Walker_Credit: Billy Vitch)

After a brief interlude London’s ‘House Gospel Choir‘ who sing classic house music songs in a gospel music style are nothing short of spectacular, taking up the entire stage, they probably could’ve done with a bigger stage because there are about 15 members but they made it work with the full sections of a choir you would expect, with Sopranos, Altos and Tenors complimented by a DJ/ Keys and a live sax player, the crowd were treated to a mixture of vivacious ballads and spirited renditions of classic house tracks not to mention their latest single ‘Blind Faith‘ taking the crowd 2 steps forward then 2 steps back all as they dance and sing throughout their mesmerizing performance!

(House Gospel Choir_Credit: Billy Vitch)

The evening’s headliner ‘Heather Small‘ hardly needs any introduction! Heather grew up on a council estate in the neighbourhood of Ladbroke Grove in West London. When she was only a teen she auditioned for and was accepted into Hot House, her first professional singing group. Black Box’s re-recording of ‘Ride on Time‘ featured her as a studio singer. She met Manchester DJ, Mike Pickering‘, previously of the band ‘Quando Quango‘, by coincidence, and the two hit it off, leading to the worldwide sale of over 10 million CDs by the group ‘M People‘. Songs like ‘Moving On Up‘, “One Night in Heaven‘, and ‘Search for the Hero‘ were huge hits for them.

Heather enters from stage left and greets us all with her now iconic smile as people shout out “We love you, Heather”. Heather sets the stage alight with her unmistakable vocals with a live performance of ‘Renaissance‘, backed by a stellar ensemble of backup singers and a stunning full live band. The crowd could not wait for her to grace us with her presence and she did not disappoint the sold out crowd in the slightest.

(Heather Small_Credit_Billy Vitch)

Miss Small then punches out an eclectic rendition of M people classics such as ‘One night in heaven’, ‘Search for the Hero’, ‘Moving on Up’ and ‘Proud’ alongside some solo offerings. Each of these songs found a home in the setlist, with Small’s voice sounding as powerful and faultless as it did in the band’s ’90s heyday. The singer’s energetic showmanship is a reminder to us all of her brilliance as a singer, looking majestic in a purple and orange waistcoat showing off a midriff that had most of the ladies in the audience as green as her pants with envy.  

Her noteworthy curls are replaced with tight braids that swing around as she paces the stage, giving every section of her audience a balanced amount of attention; waving to fans as they helped her sing through her famous repertoire and even making one girl’s night on the front row reaching out and high fiving her.

(Heather Small_Credit_Billy Vitch)

One of my earliest memories is sleeping over at my grandmother’s house at the weekend when cable used to only have three music channels, The BOX, MTV and VH1 and ‘One Night In Heaven’ would be prominently blasting on all of them so to say I was excited to be seeing the Voice of M people live is an understatement and she did not disappoint.

A fantastic evening after a whole weekend of shows at Liverpool’s International Music Festival and what a way to end it!

Review Daniel Sef

Photography Billy Vitch

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