Lucy Woodward: „Ballgate“ in Dortmund

Many Rod fans will remember Lucy Woodward, who travelled the world with Sir Rod from 2012 to 2016 as a backing singer and part of the Stewart band, performing on stage in almost every corner of the globe. Lucy Woodward, who has since gone on to have a remarkable solo career, comes to mind particularly often these days for the author of these lines. Because the concert in Dortmund is coming up. And exactly, in Dortmund, there used to be something.
It's 3 July 2013, Sir Rod Stewart's performance in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle as part of his Live The Life tour is in its final stages and we're already approaching the encore. As always - or rather almost always - at a Stewart concert, signed balls fly into the audience. This is also the case on this hot summer's day in Dortmund. But then: a ball is thrown back onto the stage from the audience and hits singer Lucy Woodward as it bounces back onto the stage from a loudspeaker under the hall ceiling. Rod Stewart immediately stops the song, loudly insults the culprit from the stage and is visibly ... pissed off (excuse the language). Although he carries on with his programme, he then sings his worldwide hit Baby Jane as if petrified and completely emotionless. But then it's over. Without a single word of farewell and without the obligatory encore, Sir Rod leaves the stage and ends the concert abruptly.
Lucy, and this was the most important news of the evening, was fortunately not seriously injured by the ball. After a brief moment of shock, she was able to continue the show as usual and bring it to a professional conclusion.
So now Rod Stewart returns to Dortmund for the first time since ‘Ballgate’, as the evening is now known among Stewart fans. Without Lucy Woodward, but again with a lot of footballs in his luggage.

ABOUT LUCY WOODWARD

Born in London, Lucy spent her childhood in New York and The Netherlands. She is the daughter of two classical musicians - her father a conductor and composer, her mother an opera singer, musicologist, teacher and belly-dancer. She learned to play the flute (her first love), took piano lessons after her grandmother every Monday night and studied ballet. When she was 12, she sang in a karaoke booth at the mall and her life was forever changed. She (proudly) went to public high school in The Bronx and was always singing in choirs, girl groups and musicals. “Growing up in NYC you have subway cars to sing in and street corners to sing on so there was always a place to find yourself.”

At age 16, she was accepted into Manhattan School of Music where she studied vocal jazz but she dropped out after a year because she “loved bebop but didn’t sing it”. So she hit the streets and started singing in NYC’s West Village for tips, cover bands, TV commercials and writing songs before signing with Atlantic Records (2003) —a time period that saw her score a Top 40 hit with “Dumb Girls” and another Top 5 hit she wrote for Stacie Orrico called “(There's Gotta Be) More to Life”, earning her 2 BMI Awards. With her debut record in tow, she toured the US, Japan and New Zealand and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

But Woodward had no desire to be a pop starlet: her follow-up, the jazzier, punchier indie record Lucy Woodward is...Hot and Bothered was released in 2008 which “shed new light” on music-making again. Billboard described how “Lucy's a ball, equally appreciable for fans of melodic sing-along baubles and highbrow aficionados of finely honed musical composition. A sonic turnstile that flips through dreamy pop, jazz and bluesy bebop”.

The release was followed by Hooked!, an album of Brill Building meets Big Band songs, released on Verve (2010) -- which was largely produced by Tony Visconti (David Bowie). The album effortlessly moves across multiple genres, including gypsy-swing and rhythm & blues. Along with her self-penned compositions, the album showcases Lucy’s stunning covers of Peggy Lee’s Cuban-inspired “Sans Souci” and an Ink Spots-inspired a cappella Hoagy Carmichael classic, “Stardust.” Nellie McKay also wrote and sang background vocals for Lucy on “Another Woman” who Lucy was a longtime admirer of.

In 2012, Lucy was asked to tour as a band member filling in for the lead singer of Pink Martini learning songs in Turkish, French, Croatian, Japanese and Spanish with 6 days notice due to the lead singer China Forbes’ emergency vocal surgery. Her short time with the band included dates at Montreal Jazz Fest, Ravinia and working with the San Francisco Symphony for several performances.

Lucy began to work with Snarky Puppy bandleader Michael League, who played bass in her NYC band at the time. She started opening for Snarky Puppy (with them as her backing band) and was featured on Snarky Puppy’s first Grammy award winning Family Dinner, Vol. 1 album singing the bluesy baritone guitar anthem “Too Hot To Last”. League and longtime friend keyboardist/arranger Henry Hey (Forq, David Bowie) co-produced her fourth solo album Til They Bang on The Door which features the Snarky Puppy horns and organist Cory Henry (GroundUP 2016).

In 2018, Lucy teamed up with guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter and toured extensively in the US & Europe. In 2019, they released their debut collaboration Music!Music!Music! and the follow up album I’m a Stranger Here was released in 2021. All About Jazz said, “Hunter and Woodward had enough chemistry between them to ignite a couple dozen Bunsen Burners”. Lucy and Charlie opened for Snarky Puppy at Royal Albert Hall on their UK tour in 2019. Her conductor father was in the audience who had conducted there several decades earlier many times over when he was a conductor for the BBC singers. More on their project below.

Lucy has performed her material with Big Bands all over Europe. She was a guested with Frankfurt Radio Big Band (arranged/conducted by Jim McNeely), WDR Big Band (arranged/conducted by Chris Walden), Danish Radio Big Band, Odense Jazz Orchestra, Orchestra Jazz Siciliana and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. In addition to her solo career, Woodward has sung legends such as Rod Stewart, Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Chaka Khan, Carole King and Joe Cocker. She has been featured on movie soundtracks such as What a Girl Wants, The Blind Side, Music and Lyrics, Last Vegas and Ice Princess, with her rendition of the Bjork/Betty Hutton Big Band classic "It's Oh So Quiet”. “Quiet” was also in the 2020 trailer of blockbuster movie Birds of Prey and has been featured in numerous commercials and TV shows.

"This brand new album by Lucy Woodward is pure creative magic! Full of thought provoking well crafted songs, beautiful and refreshing. Lucy sang in my band for many years, she left to pursue her own career, a delightful stunning lady inside and out. I highly recommend ’Stories from the Dust‘."

Sir Rod Stewart