Monday, March 07, 2005
These Words
"If you're gonna be a singer then you better be a rock star", says Natasha Bedingfield on album track, If You're Gonna.., although it's clearly not a view she subscribes to too strongly, given that her next single is I Bruise Easily - a tender, heartfelt ballad which is about as far away from rock as Jordan is from talent. Mind you, it's not a huge surprise given that Natasha is a big old mass of contradictions, after all she did follow up her debut single, Single, a song about how great it is to be on your todd, with These Words, a song which essentially said, "You know what? Being in love is pretty fine and dandy after all." and, of course, the most glaring one of all: the fact she's a Bedingfield but she's actually bloody good. It was with all that in mind that we took a trip down the M8 to Glasgowland to see the Lady Bedingfield in full on live action.
First off all, let's get the support out of the way, it came from Tyler James who is Jamie Cullum without the piano and, as such, is pretty shit. Now, Natasha. She came on stage dressed in a white waistcoast and floaty green skirt and, to be quite honest, we'd have been more than happy if she just stood their for the gig, twirling occasionally and generally being pretty. Fortunately for the rest of the audience, who may not have been quite so keen to consider that to be value for money, she also decided to belt out a few songs to keep us entertained, which was nice of her. Opening with I'm a Bomb, the set pretty much consisted of the entire album shuffled around a bit with a cover of Maroon 5's This Love thrown in for good measure. It's something of a testament to Natasha's skills that she managed to make one of their dreary trudges along the musical path sound halfway palatable.
Although she happily danced around the stage like a love-crazed pixie, for the most part showmanship (showwomanship?) was kept to a minimum, letting the songs speak for themselves which, given the quality of the songs and the singing, was no bad thing. 'Stunts', for want of a better term, were pretty much limited to a bit of call and response half way through the set, quite literally getting off the stage during These Words and the handing of a rose to a guy in the audience during We're All Mad. We were particularly jealous of the recipient, as it surely meant he'd have been on a promise and could legally demand congress as a result of the gift.
The only real disappointment of the night was that there was no costume change for the encore, although our disappointment mainly stems from the fact that we were happily imagining her half naked in her dressing room. Natasha is a genuine star and you've got to love her for it. The gig ended on a mass accapella rendition of These Words betwixt the crowd and the band, Natasha's claims to love us may well not have been fully heartfelt, but for the audience it was a genuine expression of joyful emotion. We love her. Is that OK?
First off all, let's get the support out of the way, it came from Tyler James who is Jamie Cullum without the piano and, as such, is pretty shit. Now, Natasha. She came on stage dressed in a white waistcoast and floaty green skirt and, to be quite honest, we'd have been more than happy if she just stood their for the gig, twirling occasionally and generally being pretty. Fortunately for the rest of the audience, who may not have been quite so keen to consider that to be value for money, she also decided to belt out a few songs to keep us entertained, which was nice of her. Opening with I'm a Bomb, the set pretty much consisted of the entire album shuffled around a bit with a cover of Maroon 5's This Love thrown in for good measure. It's something of a testament to Natasha's skills that she managed to make one of their dreary trudges along the musical path sound halfway palatable.
Although she happily danced around the stage like a love-crazed pixie, for the most part showmanship (showwomanship?) was kept to a minimum, letting the songs speak for themselves which, given the quality of the songs and the singing, was no bad thing. 'Stunts', for want of a better term, were pretty much limited to a bit of call and response half way through the set, quite literally getting off the stage during These Words and the handing of a rose to a guy in the audience during We're All Mad. We were particularly jealous of the recipient, as it surely meant he'd have been on a promise and could legally demand congress as a result of the gift.
The only real disappointment of the night was that there was no costume change for the encore, although our disappointment mainly stems from the fact that we were happily imagining her half naked in her dressing room. Natasha is a genuine star and you've got to love her for it. The gig ended on a mass accapella rendition of These Words betwixt the crowd and the band, Natasha's claims to love us may well not have been fully heartfelt, but for the audience it was a genuine expression of joyful emotion. We love her. Is that OK?
