I first saw VV Brown as part of her joint headline tour with Gary Go earlier this year and although I wasn’t sure about her music from a brief peruse of MySpace (where it was almost impossible to make friends with her – go figure), her live set was enough to convince me that she is a really interesting talent. Well, that and the fact that she hails from Northampton – posh Northampton I would like to point out, but Northampton none the less. She was one of the artists tipped to make a big impact in 2009, along with her singer/songwriter brethren Little Boots, Florence and The Machine, La Roux and Lady GaGa, but has yet to bother the UK charts. As with a lot of the new artists around at the moment, she has her finger in many a creative pie, including a vintage fashion line and a comic book as well as a sideline in modelling – you get the picture that she is generally too cool for school.I was hoping to get to see her again and when I found out quite late on that she was playing in store as part of Selfridges 100 year anniversary it was a bit of a no brainer. Playing the basement of a department store under bright lights on a warm Friday evening is probably not ideal, but VV and her excellent band, who deserve a special mention for being thoroughly nice chaps, did a great job. The crowd that had gathered beforehand were obviously VV fans and friends and therefore too cool to relax into the show (I obviously didn’t have that problem), and they were joined by people with shopping bags mid-shop once the gig started, so there wasn't a great atmosphere from the get go. Despite this, VV and the band pulled a great little set out of the bag, including the following (I think the order is a bit off but as we are in a whole new month now it’s not surprising I’ve forgotten ;-)
Crying Blood
Everybody
Leave
L.O.V.E.
Bottles
Game Over
Shark in the Water
Crying Blood (reggae mix)
The sound engineers at Selfridges also deserve an honourable mention as the sound was great and I imaging that a shop doesn’t have the best acoustics to start with. In fact, the sound set up was significantly better than when I saw her perform at Bush Hall in March, where the sound engineer should have been fired on the spot for her having zero mic volume at the start of the set - perhaps we should be looking at retail outlets as being the training ground for sound engineers of the future. Just a thought…
Anyhoo, the set went down well considering the environment and VV and her band were all in good spirits. The songs are insanely catchy and are a new take on pop with ska undertones – Bottles, L.O.V.E. and Shark are the standout tracks for my money. VV herself is almost impossibly tall, thin, beautiful and “fashion forward” (I’ve watched too many episodes of Project Runway) and she looked amazing as well as sounding the best I’ve heard her. On the encore version of Crying Blood her vocal was pretty darn amazing – see for yourself (the sound doesn't help but it gets better in the middle):
VV’s music cries out to be played on a summer evening so I’m hopeful that new single Shark in the Water, which is due out July 7th, will pick up more radio play than previous singles Crying Blood and Leave. She’s also doing the rounds of the festivals including the main stage at Glasto so she has a great opportunity to getting her music out there. Her chances of success are, in my very humble opinion, slightly dented by the attitude that radiates off her on her Twitter updates (sample: "is angry when people think that this project is contrived.. thanks to all those who support us and come to our gigs and see that its not."), and her blog, where a tirade against a thread on an internet chat room was removed not long after she posted it, both of which suggest that she is carrying a huge chip about something or other. Incidentally I read the thread and there wasn’t anything for her to get upset about – it was actually mostly positive and in terms of criticism I’ve seen MUCH worse. If she is successful I’m guessing that she will have diva tendencies, but then which of the great female singers don’t? [EDIT: Kylie and Annie Lennox spring to mind on reflection, but you get the gist]. Also, she needs the big radio break, and I just hope that the attitude doesn’t stand in the way of that.
In summary, I love VV Brown’s music – I am borderline obsessed with Shark at the moment – and she and her band put on a great live show. The only problem is that I’m not sure I like VV herself that much – and that likability factor can go a long way.
VV Brown’s next single, Shark in the Water, is out 7th July
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