The misfiring reappearance of Lauryn Hill

Lauryn Hill's trying a comeback, and started in Brixton.

Now, her live performances have sometimes been a bit mixed, but anyone who buys a ticket for Hill in 2014 is pricing in that the event could be erratic-bordering-on-inexplicable, right?

But a late start, angry tweets and poor reviews marred her first sell-out gig at the Brixton Academy in London.

Oh.

The 39-year-old singer, famous for her 1998 album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill", arrived on stage with a five-piece band and three backing singers at 9:58 p.m. on Saturday.

The show, with tickets selling for 55 pounds ($90), had been advertised to start at 9 p.m., with doors opening at 7 p.m.

Okay, so an hour late. That's not a good start, but it's a Saturday night. We're all okay staying up a bit late on a Saturday, right. Especially for a great gig.

It was great, right?

When she arrived, Hill spent 80 minutes performing a combination of re-worked hits from her debut album, the only solo studio album she has made, and delving into pop and rock territory.

Songs from "The Score", another award-winning album Hill recorded as part of the Fugees in 1996, were left largely untouched, along with a number of tracks from her 2002 MTV Unplugged 2.0 album.

Hill also performed covers of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" by Nancy Sinatra, The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes for You" and a few Bob Marley classics, including "Soul Rebel", "Jammin'" and "Is This Love".

To me, that sounds okay - if I'm a big enough fan to go and see her, that she does some solo stuff and a few classic seems a good mix.

Yuichi Miyama, a 31-year-old paralegal from London, said on Twitter: "Lauryn Hill is the most disappointing concert I have ever been to. That's heart-breaking."

He explained to Reuters at the concert that he didn't recognize a lot of the songs Hill performed.

"The bottom line is Lauryn Hill is a singer and there are a lot of songs on that album that she sings certain things in such a beautiful way," he said.

Wow. You admire Lauryn Hill as a singer, and yet think that she has chosen to sing things in the wrong way. I can see why you might be disappointed. I can't see why you didn't know this would happen, and didn't choose instead to stay at home and listen to the album. Because the album always sounds like the album, and Lauryn Hill live - when she turns up - never sounds like the album.

Lauryn Hill goes away

So, with the million in unpaid taxes finally catching up with her, Lauryn Hill has started her prison sentence:

Hill reported to federal prison in Danbury, said Ed Ross, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons. Inmates at the minimum security prison live in open dormitory-style living quarters and are expected to work jobs such as maintenance, food service or landscaping.

Landscaping? If they've got all their inmates landscaping, the prison grounds must look like Schloss Linderhof.

Lauryn Hill is running late. And so is Snoop.

The thing is, there's no real reason to make up stuff about pop stars, as the real stories are quite diverting enough. And this one has a few hundred witnesses.

Lauryn Hill turned up three hours late to play Washington's Rock The Bells festival. Because she was having a pedicure. And a manicure. Obviously. Nobody would be three hours late just for a pedicure.

And when she finally swung by, was the wait worth it?

The performance was a messy rush through highlights from "Miseducation," but they were hardly recognizable due to her hoarse voice, speedy delivery and clunky, overstuffed arrangements. Hill wasn't lacking for energy, just focus. The feedback on her microphone was ear-splitting; special guest Nas came out for a 45-second cameo, and his microphone wasn't working for half of it. After 20 minutes she departed to an equal mix of cheers and boos, seemingly oblivious as to why anyone might be upset.

If only she'd taken the time to prepare properly.

Still, 20 minutes was a lifetime compared to Snoop Dogg, who hadn't taken the stage by 10.45 - for an event due to finish at its 11 o'clock curfew. From the Washington Post review, it doesn't sound as if anyone minded overmuch the truncation.

Fugees split. Again.

The promise of "new Fugees" stuff has run out of steam trying to get over Lauryn Hill, reports Pras:

"Me and [Wyclef], we are on the same page, but Lauryn is in her zone and I'm fed-up with that shit.

"Here she is blessed with a gift with the opportunity to rock and give and she's running on some bullshit? I'm a fan of Lauryn's, but I can't respect that."

Of course, it's actually quite a while since Lauryn Hill was converted to run purely on bullshit. It's eco-friendly but terrible if you're around while she's filling up.

Pink won't dip pen for Britney

Pink has turned down the chance to throw a song down the long, bleak tunnel which is Britney Spear's future career on the grounds that Britney is entertaining - although that might be being a bit overkind:

"Not because I don't like (Spears) - I do think she's crazy enough to do one of my songs. But it's very hard for me to let go of my songs and the only people I write for are real singers - not that she's not a real singer, but she's more of an entertainer. "When I mean real singers, I mean the likes of Lauryn Hill, Faith Hill - and I'd write for Amy Winehouse, because you need serious attitude to carry off the dumb stuff I write about."

In other words, we think: Britney is doing too much rehab.

Brum do: Lauryn Hill disappoints

We're a little surprised at the clamour of disapproval from so many Lauren Hill fans at her ropey performance in Birmingham yesterday evening:

“I witnessed and experienced a first last night – the complete and utter demise of a personal hero and the worst gig of my life.

“Not only did the woman not grace the stage until 10.30 - the venue to close at 11.00 – providing the good value of about £5 per 5 minutes of music! But she looked like a cracked out, mad old bag lady that you make considerable efforts to cross the street to avoid. We are trying to get our money back for this complete and utter farce.”

but, if Lauryn Hill is your hero, surely you'd be aware that buying tickets for one of her gigs isn't even a lottery. You know she'll turn up late, looking like Pete Doherty dressed as Kate Moss, sing terribly and wobble off after ten minutes or so. It's a little like complaining that Mark E Smith has turned up drunk.

Hill and high water

Lauryn Hill's occasional forays into live performance never fail to disappoint. Well, unless, as with last night's Oakland Show, you'd paid ninety bucks to be there.

Eyewitness reports detail a sixty minute wait between the support and her arrival; a "largely improvised" jazz workout followed by some teetering singing and falling over - something Hill blamed on her "high heels".

Apparently, though, she looked the part:

She had that make-up on like a bag lady, like cake face with reds and blues.

Apparently, there are no plans for refunds, but the audience can at least take comfort in having a story to tell their grandkids.