the video for 'Need One' was recorded at that show! You can watch it at the official site

here's a review from Bertrand (thanks a lot!):

QUIXOTIC AT THE WILD CLUB

Tonight's show was absolutely sensational.....the room was fully packed up and hardly anywhere to move. We were treated to some great music and mixes on the sound system while we waited for Martina in the dark purple lit smoky room... a mixture of hip hop, reggae, dance, soul and even a tune by Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Then finally she arrived looking cool in a cream coloured sari kinda dress nicely wrapped around her beautiful self...she began with a bluesy, mouth-organ accompanied kind of vocal based song reminscent of Billie Holliday and next a wonderful percussion based version of the upcoming single 'Need One'...she later played the original version getting to the end of the show.

She then went into the more instrumental tracks which were a blend of various styles, quick paced and mellow,....heavy bass percussion driven melodic tunes and ended the show with a very quick hard rocking beatsy track. It was a combination of soul, blues, folk, rythym and blues with slight hints of her earlier collaborations here and there.

She displayed such a wide and very powerful vocal range....I mean very very powerful...adapting and wrapping her voice so beautifully around and within the instrumentation. Her sang so naturally. She displayed great vocal stamina the way she went through al the songs without taking a break.

I think she's going to blow the people away with this album which I strongly recommend and also be sure to ATTEND any of her live shows if you ever get the chance...she's superb live. Her band was excellent..amazing expertise and seemed to be enjoying themselves playing/backing with such perfection.

She seemed very much at home on stage occassionally teasing the crowd with gentle humour now and then.

I'd say this the best live music show I've ever been to...Martina was great..excellent vocals, great songs, great band...can't wait for the album.

And also many thanks to moon palace for the ticket...great show.
Bert,
London
 

and another one from Ex:

Went to the Martina gig yesterday. Got there way too early in over-eager anticipation. Went away came back again, at about 7:15 was let in. Two compadres were with me. Hung around for awhile as the performance area started to fill up. The gig was for media, music industry, compo winners - a few hundred people. Positioned myself at the foot of the stage. After a protracted delay, things kicked off at about 8:40... on came 3 guitarists, a guy behind decks, another sample operator, 3 backing singers (one of whom was Petra from Free Association) and a very entertaining guy dressed in a sort of Al Capone pin striped suit who had a harmonica in his hand. 

The set was an hour or so long. Martina was in this elegant yellow dress replete with scarf-type garment. She seemed... calm throughout. The songs were really great... bit of a bugger that I don't know the names of most of the tracks. The first song they performed was brilliant... a stripped-down bluesy number with a very infectious melody over some mouth organ - a future classic maybe? They did two versions of Need One, the first was a stripped-down bluesy version which was reasonable. Full blast Need One later on just sounded immense. One number was almost entirely vocals, the three backing singers formed a circle around MTB and harmonising. There was a funky guitar-driven groove track which had a lot of energy and stood out and also a really pretty ambient number with just MTB and samples and click-sounds which was captivating... when it finished she ad-libbed 'have you all gone to sleep' wryly. At the end of Need One (second time around) she told the crowd 'this is our last song'... crowd went 'ahhh' and MTB replied 'very convincing', as if to sarcastically say 'you're not really that disappointed are you'. It sort of made the whole affair seem a little false even though everything went perfectly on the night and it was an awesome show. The MTB voice was on top-form and the band worked well and the mouth organ guy (sonofdave.com???) and his dancing was entertainment par excellence. 

We sorta hung around after the gig ended which I guess was... 'bout 9:40 or so. Remember taking some tickets back from the front table as mementos (the tickets were cards with some MTB artwork on). Chatted about what we thought and stuff... BBC 6 music interviewed us for our views... it's a digital radio station that people actually listen to apparently!? After milling around for quite some time, we went back into the main space, had a drink, discussed bands. ZzzzzZzzz... Then sauntered downstairs to the so-called 'private party', which wasn't staggeringly private it must be said. It took place in what I was told was a curry house. Er, ok. What happened next was a bit of sham it's got to be said! I had decided I was going to grab a word with the great lady herself but having never met her before there never seemed to be a right time. After being pressured by compadres to go home as it was getting a bit late, did eventually decided to have a chat. Walked over to where she was sitting. MTB seemed happy and was talking to somebody on a mobile that it was her birthday soon. I was sitting next to her, like a bit of a lemon really, waiting for this phone conversation to end. She then sorta turned towards me and pointed a finger straight at me saying, 'is it you?' or something. Then she said 'do you find me pointing at you rude?' I think. ???? I got the impression she was looking out for 'someone' who she didn't know the identity of...? I dunno. Somebody who might've been record company came up behind me and in the most patronising and embarrasing way conceivable he said (on my unrequested behalf), 'he just wanted to say it was a "good gig"', making me seem like a complete and utter twat. Thanks for that mate. And that wasn't the end of the idiocy. Mate 2 decided to interrupt the beginning of the conversation by saying, 'well basically he's been waiting 30 minutes for a chance to speak with you' - I'm gonna think twice before I sort him out with a gig ticket in future, let me tell you! *******! I felt like.... uh, like a gimp. But it didn't seem to disturb the Bird too much. 

Conversation went roughly thus. I said it went well, sounded good and it would be good when people get to know the songs and she was performing to real fans and not just press and stuff. MTB said that this was about proving the live thing to people, nobody really had seen the band perform before. There didn't seem to be any dates for her confirmed but she said she hoped to do the festivals. What else... ermmm... well one thing that stuck in my mind was my questions about Tricky... how he was... she didn't appear to have seen him for awhile... she confirmed that Tricky had produced one track and co-produced another two... said Vulnerable was coming out before her LP... that similar release dates of albums was pure coincedence... asked about Tricky's feelings on
press comparing them too as Ike / Tina Turner... did she feel held back at all... she was like 'he asked to work with *me. He's a geni.... he can write, produce, he can do everything.' Very much conveyed the former relationship as being a great honour etc... "If I stayed, I'd never get to do my own thing" etc - that's roughly what she said. This seemed a thorny area and one I felt a bit mistaken to go down, but ah well. Also talked about the idea of gigs. She seemed... dissatisfied with it, not in terms of how it went, she said it went good, but just the idea of performing arranged songs. She felt it was boring. It made me wonder what the alternative is, would she rather
make songs up as she went along. I was a bit surprised... I can understand you getting sick of repeating your back catalogue after a draining 50 date tour but this was just one performance... she talked about having backing singers as if the idea was ridiculous, at least that's how it came across. I think I asked her whether she felt that the record company were doing all they could and promoting her enough and stuff, can't remember all she said but she did say there was another backing singer whose 'knee was ****ed' but who had a lot of soul and vibed well live. She was annoyed at the fact that the record company wouldn't pay for this singer to come down. Similarly
when I got onto her website: did she know there was one she said she doesn't deal with it, I said it might be nice if she posted a message... not sure if she said she would... tbh I don't know if she thought I meant her site or moon palace. She seemed pissed that the record company wouldn't pay the airfare for Kitty from Moon Palace to come see the gig, 'she's supported me from the beginning', she said. She said some other stuff which I can only recollect in a haze... about not being 'Celine Dion' and needing to use her brain and being nearly 28 and gave impression she's still trying to convey what sort of artist she wants to be. It was interesting, because to me she just seems like the country's greatest singer who would find no problem doing whatever she wanted, but the career so far seemed to be tinged with a little frustration. Oh yeah, and I think I remarked on what she'd being doing in the lead-up to this record saying, 'you've been a backing singer, a session singer...' she was like I've never been a session singer and I responded by saying 'oh, that didn't seem right to me either, but I heard it from the radio, someone on the radio said it' (which they did, an XFM DJ the previous night). Did seem a little pre-occupied with other thoughts. At the end, she was like 'we have to go now' (the curry house area was closing up) and I think I turned to walk away quite abruptly sensing, rightly or wrongly, a degree of discomfort in... uh, being questioned... it felt strange... 'thanks for coming' she said as we wandered away up the stairs and into the Holborn street. I chastised Mate 2 for embarrasing me, accordingly! 

Overall she came across as nice and approachable and having a good time......  So a great set of songs, mainly rocking bluesy souly tunes. And an interesting post-gig experience. Hoping for even greater things to come. 

Oh, and I took sort posting those online in due course. Other people have probably got great photos done already...

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