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Katy b Xoyo, Old Street, London 01.10.2013 By Sam Walton Photography by Abi Dainton
For Katy B, the stage is set – and not just the one that awaits her in XOYO on an October Tuesday. Although her 2011 debut LP was a success on its own terms, over the past year it appears that all the elements have fallen into place for the one-time Rinse FM hype girl to make a more permanent pop cross over: another former Rinse colleague, Jessie Ware, has softened large mainstream crowds to a peculiarly South London brand of soul singer that’s half dork half diva, Disclosure’s triumphant 2013 has made everyone re-evaluate the addictive joy of all things two-step, and this summer’s domination of ‘Get Lucky’ and ‘Blurred Lines’ suggests that the public may finally have grown weary of deeply joyless stadium brostep occupying the charts. Add to the mix a pre-album publicity campaign that’s at pains to point out the newfound maturity – not to mention Radio 2 accessibility – in her writing, and you’ve got the kind of combination over which major record label executives lose serious saliva. And yet, though the planets feel so carefully aligned, there remains something pleasingly earthy about B’s performance tonight. Aesthetically, her only nod to impending megafame is a cheekily kitsch diamondencrusted mic; aside from that, she bounces around the stage in a plain blue t-shirt and trousers, her garb and demeanour less pop star, more just excited clubber. Indeed, her last
album’s central theme of going clubbing with her mates appears to have endured: “I’ve had so many amazing nights here,” she says dreamily as she surveys a sea of raised iPhones, before introducing a brand to new track as being about, you guessed it, going out clubbing with her mates. That, and a second newbie that follows, turn out to be infectious funky house bangers cut from the same cloth as B’s debut, and delivered with a confidence that attests to her familiarity with the form.The fun – and comfort – is not sustained though when B’s third new song in a row rather surprisingly ditches clubland for the type of huge, belting torch song that X-Factor hopefuls invariably try to “make their own”, and which could easily be bound for an encounter with Adele’s lawyers. Rising quickly from an initial whisper to full-blown melismatic honk and accompanied throughout by only a single piano, ‘Crying For No Reason’ is a ballad so commercially chiselled that by the advent of the first chorus, the majority of the initially fidgety crowd has been tamed, or maybe just stunned, into silently admiring B’s considerable vocal gymnastics. It is, in short, One Of Those Songs: even if the emotional darkness, implied by the title, of irrational tears is somewhat diffused by B following that phrase with the word “because”, it’s undeniably ripe, well-oiled pop
craftsmanship. A look of relief crosses her face as she finishes, the night’s biggest cheer follows, and after that, as if satisfied that she’s shown her club-loving fans she can do Deadly Serious Pop, she reverts to type: ‘On A Mission’ is all wildly euphoric crowd sing-along, previous single ‘5am’ is frisky and full of pep and finale ‘Lights On’ is merely conducted by B, as she donates her biggest tune to her enthusiastic public. And with that she’s off. At barely 45 minutes in total, it’s a professional job, short, sweet, and very carefully planned – right down to the inter-song chat: between each entry on her setlist are printed sentences like “Talk, excited about new album, say what album will be called” and, before ‘Lights On’, “Thank you all so much for coming XOYO” – presumably because, y’know, manners cost nothing. In the event, though, the prompts are unnecessary – B radiates a genuine sense of excitement throughout tonight’s show. But it’s small things like this, alongside her voice occasionally emanating from the PA even when she wasn’t singing, that suggest she might be heading for a place a long way from her natural clubbing habitat – and for all the triumphs of tonight, there’s an occasional unevenness to her performance that suggests a diffidence over what she’s facing.The stage is set, then, for Katy B. It’s now up to her whether she wants to take it.
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