A day of torrential rain probably wasn’t the most auspicious start to my new part time career as a member of the Academy Street Team, but a little water never hurt anyone (much) and it meant I got to go to a gig that I wouldn’t have otherwise been to.
Elviin is a soulful singer/songwriter from London and was only confirmed in the support slot for Alesha Dixon a few days before the tour began. His music is mainly piano based (although he’s accompanied by an excellent band) and more traditional than the current 80s retro pop bandwagon, but to me anyway stands out a bit from his contemporaries because of the lyrics and the interesting beats. It difficult to have good stage presence when you’re sat behind a keyboard, but Elviin certainly interacted with the audience more confidently than when I saw him back in March supporting on the Gary Go / VV Brown co-headline tour. This is the one area I reckon he could improve on though – his songs are great and his voice is just nice to listen to (and I mean nice in a good way here, not just ‘nice’). Standout track for me is In Colour (which has been A listed on Radio 2 no less!) but Good Books, which I understand to be his next single, is also pretty hot. Things are looking bright for Elviin with his debut album due out next year, so I would urge you to catch him while you can!
I had only really come to see Elviin, so when Alesha came on it was a bit of an added extra. Although I’m not the biggest Alesha fan, the girl can certainly sing. And dance. At the same time. Impressive!
The production of her show was more akin to a larger stage, with a lot of choreography and backing dancers as well as singers. There was also a couple of costume changes (including hats – woo hoo!), and lots of sequins. I was actually surprised how much of the set I knew, including a small homage to her previous band Mis-teeq with a mega mix of their greatest hits. The venue wasn’t quite full and there was quite a lot of kids there who looked a bit tired by the end of the evening, but the crowd got really into songs like The Boy Does Nothing and Lipstick, and Alesha seemed to get a bit emotional about it all.
So a nice surprise to finish the evening off. And all for the cost of 90 minutes work giving out leaflets. Nice.
Elviin’s debut album is due out in January.
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