Mark Ronson: Live Review

2008-05-06 09:19:33

The difficulty of being Mark Ronson is clearly obvious in Nottingham tonight: you’re taking a massive risk touring an album like Version without the galaxy of top-name guests whose combined efforts catapulted it into the clear night sky like a shooting star upon its release last year.
    
The crowd is buzzing with an expectant energy, partly from the shockingly warm spell of bank holiday weather we’ve just had but mostly because Ronson has established a strong ‘celebrity-style’ name for himself over the last year. His schoolboy good looks, superhero-style worship on T4 and childish red-top rows with former muse Amy Winehouse have provided him with a succession of chart hits like his love-it-or-utterly-detest-it cover of The Smiths Stop Me and the Kaiser Cheifs number Oh My God.
    
Whizz-kid soul of Winehouse
    
The problem is that, while Ronson’s backing band is composed entirely of excellent musicians and singers, most notably the outstanding South-London singer Taiwah who fills in for Amy Winehouse on Valerie and Lily Allen on Oh My God, they could never possess the naïve chav-like charm of Allen, or the electric whizz-kid soul of Winehouse.
    
Without stars like Maximo Park’s Paul Smith or even the Kaiser Cheifs rather substandard frontman Ricky Wilson, tonight’s Rock City endeavour almost resembles a good Karaoke night at the local indie club. Ronson’s lack of stage presence is also apparent, but then he is a music producer by day, don’t ya know. That said, the instrumental numbers shine and whoever had the job of putting together an ensemble that were good enough to tour such a heavyweight concept album definitely did a damn good job of it.
    
Sassy pop tunes
    
Any criticisms are probably lost on tonight’s crowd, who seemed perfectly happy enough, and inebriated enough, to sing along to the biggest numbers with reckless abandon. Hot weather and sassy pop tunes are always a winning combination, no matter who ends up singing them.
    
It wouldn’t be a lie to say that a great time was had by most people here tonight or that Ronson probably is the most ingenious producer of recent years, capitalising as he has on the names of famous chums. But it would be a lie to say that tonight’s gig was yet another fabulously sparkly moment in his music career.
    
Review: Michelle Dhillon
    

Add To :

Post a Comment (0 Comments)

Please note all fields marked * are mandatory

Name *

Email Address

Your Comment *

Email Me With Regular Updates Yes No

I have read and understood the Terms And Conditions *Yes No

Please enter the CAPTCHA text from the above image :

All fields marked * are mandatory

<< Back

Ginger

Stealth 6th Birthday