South Coast Entertainment The Ting Tings Review

aIf it's not the snow interfering with your travel to gigs, it's driving rain. But the sold out audience made it and were treated to a musical blend of new, upcoming and already established acts of VV Brown, Ladyhawke and The Ting Tings respectively. VV Brown kicked off proceedings with the self proclaimed indie soul sound which impresses in its depth along with an exceptional voice and backing band. The sound brings to mind Amy Winehouse and has a touch of past soul greatness which will do well in the modern music market. A cover of The Smiths - This Charming Man shows the excellent range the soulful tunes are capable of and the set concluded on new single Leave. With Ms Brown already turning heads not just on stage, but on catwalks with her fabulous early to mid 20th century dressing, a bright future is assured.

Having already appeared in the charts with 'My Delirium', Ladyhawke comes onstage to an already expectant audience. Wearing a sleeveless Nirvana t-shirt to maybe emphasise the fact that these tracks rock and are not just of a run of the mill dance sound, Ladyhawke bounded through tracks including Magic, Back of the Van and new single Paris Is Burning. The 80's sound so apparent in the tracks offers the young fans of the Ting Tings in the crowd a road to explore the inspirational music created in those times and will maybe push them into electronica as well.

The way the music is received and the affect on the crowd it would be easy to think Ladyhawke could be headlining these gigs in the near future. If a few fans were already in the crowd when she moved out for the first song, many hundreds would have been leaving at the end of the night.

The headliners of course don't need an introduction after the crazy 18 months they have had. The Ting Tings were most people's band of the year last year and a must see at every venue and festival going. The catchy pop indie music is able to appeal to all generations and can just as easily have a child bopping as an elderly person. Which shows in the variation of ages at the gig, which brings back the phrase 'music brings people together'. Not a bad thing at all. Jules enters stage and begins with a keyboard intro which loops while he relocates to the familiar drumkit he is used to, just with a guitar not drumsticks. Once Katie joins him the intro is played out into We Walk which gets everyone bouncing around. With the stage time through last year it's easy to see the notches The Ting Tings have gone up. Changes to songs and interaction with the crowd are more apparent and the feel good factor is there for everyone. Playing tracks like Great DJ and Shut Up And Let Me Go through first album We Started Nothing the audience loves every second and a fantastic, if fairly obvious, finale in That's Not My Name wraps things up superbly with the crowd singing every last word. The way it should be.