Amanda McBroom makes a welcome return to Crazy Coqs with another of her shows Up Close and Personal. The inspiration for this latest creation came from Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, which exhorts us to keep only those possessions that bring joy, much like the philosophy of our own William Morris: “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

She started on her music studio and excavated rhymes she’d forgotten writing, but re-discovered how good they were e.g. “We fell in love too soon or met too late,” from Beautiful Mistake written in 2004, and It’s Still Spring describing “skin tone and chances fleeting” in a woman who, “like fine expensive red wine is ready for tasting”, with which she opened the show.

It was in 1974 that she and Michele Brourman, her accompanist/arranger/fellow song writer first met, introduced by a record producer living in the same block of flats. McBroom wrote a Western style song Amanda and Brourman wrote the music, where Amanda is the song of the wind in the open plains. Haunting and evocative, the piece was the start of their deep friendship and fruitful collaboration. It was, in fact, Brourman who dared suggest the title Amanda. McBroom protested: “I can’t put my name in a song!” “I can”, was the reply.

Included in the show are a couple of Cole Porter numbers, ordered by McBroom’s singer husband George Ball: “For God’s sake, sing something they know!” They are Under My Skin and Just One of Those Things, both featuring excellent original piano arrangements by Brourman.

The patter between songs and personal stories are great, but it’s the poetry of McBroom’s lyrics that captivate. There are old favourites, including Wheels about the vicissitudes of life and homelessness, together with material that is as new as 3 months old.

For me, the two new pieces that particularly stand out are Brourman’s brittle and funny You’re Only Old Once, which is offered to us as a taster for Brourman’s own cabaret show on Monday 9th May, and a lovely gentle ballad London in the Rain, McBroom’s gift to us.

I have seen these two perform together many times, each time special, but this is truly a memorable evening. If you are interested in the arts of cabaret and song writing, you really must not miss this.

Fiona-Jane Weston