.jpg)
Photo: wenn
It’s perhaps an appropriate choice that Remi Nicole opens her set with ‘Tabloid Queen’. Considering that she’s supporting Amy Winehouse, the irony seems obvious. Luckily, the 24-year-old Londoner is an accomplished enough performer in her own right that she doesn’t need any histrionics to garner attention, as her recent stratospheric rise to public attention has confirmed. Already, Nicole is confident and assured, wasting little time in winning over the already fairly busy Barrowlands crowd.
She’s like a sassier, sharper female version of Jack Penate, with a little bit of Lily Allen’s gob and Alex Turner’s observational skills too, backed up by a tight, accomplished backing band. The majority of her half hour set features Nicole on acoustic guitar, with the catchy, upbeat vibe of ‘Go With The Flow’ standing out alongside the more languid treasure that is ‘Fed Up’. She finishes with 'Rock & Roll', the recent riposte to people who think that she should be playing R n B instead of focusing on indie. Like the majority of her performance, it’s accomplished stuff and nicely straddles the line between the cosy style that’ll go down a storm on mainstream radio and the rougher edges that’ll help her find a place at the alternative table too.
At the same time, there’s a little bit of fizz missing from her songs. They’re easy on the ear, and performed well but they become a little too mired in middle of the road strum a longs, while some of her lyrics don’t hit the mark either. Despite the obvious aspirations for her songs to tell stories, she trips up from time to time and falls into that dreaded hole known as “nice but bland.” Hopefully, in time she’ll be able to find that extra spark and retain it throughout all her songs, because the potential is clearly there.
As for the walking soap opera that is Amy Winehouse, she turned up, gave a straightforward performance and then left. Considering the previous gig’s shambles (amusingly, any mention of Birmingham is lustily booed by the crowd) that’s probably the best that could have been hoped for. Looking as tiny and fragile as ever, there’s only a couple of moments where she starts to lapse into drama and talk about her husband, who she declares to be the “best man in the world.” Aside from that, anyone there in the hope she’d crash and burn would leave disappointed, as she ran through most of Back To Black and some of Frank, with the inevitable encore of ‘Valerie’ concluding matters.
As always, her voice seems too big for her, coming growling out of her mouth. But it’s a thing of beauty when she gets it right, particularly on cool as ice versions of ‘Rehab’ and ‘Cherry’, while the jazz lounge setting and backing band help provide a secure platform for her. Some of the material is fairly forgettable, and draws close to tedium but her voice is strong enough to overcome that. It may not have been a blazing comeback gig but it was solid, and for now, that’ll have to do.
CLICK HERE to see all the action from the gig
