Paul Strange reviews Ruby Turner and her band at Blackmore Gardens.

First emerging with three Top 30 hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Jamaican-born R&B/soul/gospel singer Ruby Turner has recorded with some top artists, including Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry, UB40, Culture Club and Steve Winwood. Probably best known as one of the main singers with the Jools Holland R&B Orchestra, she’s kept her solo career ticking over, fronting her own band, releasing 17 albums and picking up an MBE along the way.

Sunday night’s headlining concert at the Blackmore Gardens – the penultimate night of this year’s superb Sidmouth International Jazz & Blues Festival - clearly showed why Turner is so respected by her peers and has become a must-see act.

Using a walking stick for some of the show – she didn’t want to talk about her recent leg injury but then proceeded to give us chapter and verse about what had happened – she gave us a masterclass in stage craft, lifting her band song by song and gradually building her performance into a powerhouse of pent-up emotion.

Kicking off with the moody “On the Defence”, she slotted in a taut “So Amazing” before dedicating “Master Plan” to her father. It may have been a cool night, but she lifted the temperature several degrees for a searing “A Better Way”. Unafraid of extending numbers, she gave “Stay with Me Baby” the works, wringing out the emotion and producing one of the festival’s stand-out moments.

Lightening the mood a little, she offered us more anecdotes – including her amusing experience as an actor in the 2003 rom-com “Love Actually” – before settling into a groove for “That’s My Desire”. Building powerfully for the slow and stirring “Runaway”, the funky number gave all her band members a chance for solos.

She saved the best until last. Turner’s take on the Etta James classic “I’d Rather Go Blind” was spellbinding. Full of passion, tears and heartbreak, she seemed to have given the song everything, but then went on to her reserve tank to repeatedly scream “I was just, I was just…” before bringing her band back in again.

The dynamite performance brought the audience to their feet, as Turner encored with a blistering “(If You’re Ready) Come Go with Me”. It was a fitting end to a quite remarkable concert.