Few artists can command an audience’s attention as powerfully as Benjamin Clementine. As he arrived on stage, played the gentle opening piano notes to Farewell Sonata and displayed the audacious range of his vocals, an awed silence descended.
Clementine’s voice refuses to be contained or categorised. With the astonishing scope of Nina Simone, the menace of Tom Waits and the melodic beauty of Sam Cooke, his vocal work was frequently extraordinary — One Awkward Fish and God Save The Jungle from his new, second album, I Tell A Fly, being two stand-out examples.
The 2015 Mercury Prize-winner, who is expecting his first child with his partner, the singer Flo Morrissey, wove his way barefoot through a stage littered with mannequins. “You’re wondering what these are, aren’t you?” he asked, laughing. They were, the 28-year-old elaborated, a representation of his generation: a group of people alienated from each other by social media, artificial borders and the refugee crisis.
Clearly this wasn’t just a music gig but a theatrical performance too — and a political one at that. As Clementine draped one mannequin in the Stars and Stripes and read the opening to Oscar Wilde’s The Selfish Giant, his criticism of America’s immigration policies was stark. At the end of By The Ports Of Europe, he wandered through the crowd, encouraging participation and bringing the audience together to challenge such divisions.
It was an evening made up of many such emotive moments. With a performance that darted between cinematic melodies and the orchestral, the freestyle jazz of Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew and the disorientating electronica of Kid A-era Radiohead, it was evident that Clementine’s confidence had soared since his debut. Although he was a demanding listen at times, he was more often a breathtaking one.
