The Re-education of Lilly Tarmey - Review of Ms Lauryn Hill (+ The Fugees !) at Co-op Live

I was re-educated in many ways by my experience with Ms Lauryn Hill and the spanking new Co-op Live. The most painful of the lessons was learnt four months prior at the Ticketmaster checkout. Whilst you can't put a price on live exposure to the elegantly ageing voice of Ms Hill, you most certainly can put a price on renting a square metre of the obnoxiously spacious Co-op Live for 3 hours and two pints of Asahi. £140. We're going to move swiftly onto the agency enhancing cultural experience brought by The Fugees before you get me going on about the chaos of the car park ...

The crowd were occupied rather than entertained during the diva-ish delay of Hill’s arrival. New York’s ‘DJ’ Reborn attempted to connect with her mancunian audience by mixing (jumbling) together the sounds of the city with music from her side of the pond. Yes, she did publicly remix Wonderwall with Drake. It was shockingly not the Best I Ever Had (or heard) … After freestyling to ManCHESter for just shy of an hour, the real musicians took to the stage to remind the crowd why they’d sacrificed a comfortable retirement in order to fund the venue’s next impromptu air ventilation unit evacuation.

Ms Hill graced the stage just shy of 10 pm, but if anyone’s discography can halt the heavy flutter of my eyelids, it’s hers. The unity she instilled across the inter-racial and -generational audience was astounding. She diminished the enormity of the venue as she addressed each individual with the manuscript that is her song. The elegance of both her body and voice were beyond moving as she composed a new age of her miseducation.  She was inspiring in more ways than one, her seraphic ways epitomised by her ability to sing, move, and survive 90 minutes in a floor-length fur coat. She’s a better woman than I am.  

Her inspiring introduction was comprised of tracks from her debut solo album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hilland rounded off by a guest appearance from track-sake Zion, her first born son. Elegantly introduced following Hill’s performance of To Zion, a feverish frisson moment was made by the galloping entrance of a Marley. With such a musically inclined cocktail of genes, it’s no surprise how Zion’s energy surged through the arena, a taste of the hypnotic homage to his grandfather that was to follow.

Zion’s energetic appearance could only be followed by The Fugees, with Wyclef Jean instilling awe across the crowd. Stripping it back with a cover of No Woman, No Cry on an LV strat, Wyclef displayed his musical mobility whilst paying respect to the latest and greatest Marley. This emotive rendition was followed by the heart-warming harmony of Hill and Jean, sharing the stage once again, 34 years after the formation of The Fugees. Ending with hits Killing Me Softly With His Song and Fu-Gee-La, the crowds were transported back to the last century with the organic sounds and authentic messages of mid-nineties hip-hop.

The show instilled an air of euphoria on the outskirts of the Etihad stadium that could only be compromised by the harrowing honking of 6,000 cars dismissing via a single exit … I couldn’t resist.