Gigs: Craig David at Southampton Football Club (Tranmission Street) :: Wessex Scene Online

Gigs: Craig David at Southampton Football Club (Tranmission Street)

11th November 2007
Helen Wilson

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Nov 07 - Gigs: Athlete at Southampton Guildhall
Dec 07 - Interview with Craig David
Dec 07 - NOFX live at Brixton Academy
Jan 08 - Battle of the Bands
Jan 08 - Gig: Bloc Party at Alexandra Palace

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Nobody was exactly gushing following part one of the transmission filming, so I wasn’t holding my breath for round two.

It didn’t help that Mr David was nearly half an hour late and we were supposed to forgive his tardiness because he’d been to visit his mum. It makes me half consider picking up the phone to my own mother when she calls half way through our interview with Craig later. (But I refrain.)

Taking my place in the small crowd, I thought i’d give Craig a fair chance. He had been polite enough in our meeting and after all I was a journalist, here to give an unbiased review of the young singer. The rest of the crowd weren’t exactly buzzing, and there was a strange mix of people given that it was competition winners only. There was a distinct lack of screaming young girls and far more twenty-somethings in sweat pants and hoodies. This, I was later to find out, was more to do with his change in musical direction, than his new shaven image.

Descending upon the stage, he seemed genuinely happy to be back home, in Southampton and started the proceedings by thanking everyone for coming before launching into a new number. It’s just Craig and a very happy chap playing guitar on stage, but even stripped down the new material sounds good. Less Will Smith and more Usher, it’s less cheeky pop and more slick r’n’b. It’s always difficult to judge a song on a first listen, but one of the choruses are still stuck in my head a week later, "six of one thing and half a dozen of another" and that’s impressive.

The only irritating thing about the show is the scripted speech in between songs, when he cracks a few jokes we all laugh and he gushes about Southampton. They are all well and good on T.V. but live it really breaks the flow of the music. It’s not until Kano drops on stage that the crowd really get excited. Their rendition of the single ‘This Is The Girl’ is brilliant and the pair look like a duo rather than label mates who knocked up the song in a spare two hours.

Now he’s warmed up Craig really gets going with ‘Fill Me In’ which the crowd really love. But, not content with simply relying on the old faithful, he breaks it down after the second chorus and Kano joins him back on stage as the pair play at a freestyle tag-team battle. It’s quick thinking, fast paced and there is a genuine lack of cheap rhymes or K-to-the-A-to-the-N-to-the-O’s or anything of that egotistical cop-out vain. Despite his ridiculously thick black shades, Kano is brilliantly cool, and Craig shows he is more than just a piece of pop pie.