I still remember the first time I put Eli & the 13th Confession on my record deck - it had to be an original vinyl copy as her albums hadn't been re-issued - and being knocked sideways by her voice, her songs, the dizzying romanticism, the mind-boggling tempo changes, her beauty, every damn thing. It's still my favourite of hers, although NY Tendaberry and Xmas & the Beads of Sweat are as close as makes no difference. Like Joni, she never made a bad record, and her voice remained strong right up to the end (I would add unlike Joni, except I don't want to start that whole debate again, as it's not time for us to have it again :-) Associated memory: a radio presenter on GLR used to have a feature on his show called "the greatest record ever made and not played on the radio". I was on a motorway once with my brother and his wife, and he switched on the radio to get the traffic news, and I swear that the moment he switched on, the presenter introduced the feature and played Poverty Train, which I'd phoned in to request weeks ago, and had virtually forgotten about. That was a great Laura Moment. The other was seeing her live, at what must have been her last UK show, and also her first for over 20 years, at a beautiful venue called the Union Chapel. What a great woman. Azeem in London
