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With a name like The Danger Is, it's hard to know what to expect from tonight's support act. To cut it down to the bare bones, they're a female-fronted four piece that plays what can only be described as Γ―ΒΏΒ½London indieΓ―ΒΏΒ½, even though they're Irish. The willowy model-singer appears at ease, only feeling the need to shuffle here and there a little with her feet, but we don't feel we're being cheated on the performance front. Her voice is the most startling thing about them, being quite shrill but managing to cut through anything in its path quite effectively. The songs, however, follow routine Libertines-ish chord progressions and beg the question: Do we need a female fronted Libertines?

Ellie appears, playing second fiddle to her visuals, and at first it's hard notice her up there, pottering about behind the extra drumkit. She takes centre stage rather frantically for 'Under The Sheets' and it becomes apparent how weak the vocal is. Occasionally a beautiful sound will emanate from the stage, but it's generally down to one of the two backing singers, who spend the entire gig doing the side-to-side-sway, with some handclaps thrown in for variety. The next few songs continue in this vein until you begin to feel as if you're watching Singin' in the Rain, where Debbie Reynolds sings from behind the curtain, providing the voice for the movie star who cannot sing.

The night is punctuated by a short film - shown while Ellie is offstage - in which photos of her career highs so far are shown, all the while her voiceover is telling us how grateful she is to be here, and how lucky she feels. It's a nice thought but feels oddly misjudged, as having a video about herself during her gig seems a little self-indulgent. It feels like that moment during Live Aid when the video of starving children is soundtracked to The Cars' 'Drive', except Ellie is not a charity.

Things change with the acoustic part of the gig. The backing singers take a break and Ellie appears with a guitar which, although used sporadically, is still capably played. It certainly pleases the audience, for whom she can do no wrong, and this starts to affect her positively, her oddly expressionless face breaking into a smile. A cover of 'Your Song' by Elton John is not particularly groundbreaking but elicits one of the biggest rounds of applause of the night and the crowd really starts to warm to her.


The full band reappear for the rest of the set which is pure upbeat electropop and a different Ellie takes to the stage. Her enthusiasm for the performance shines through and, while she might not win X Factor for her singing alone, the fact that she has penned these songs and seems to genuinely care about them makes her seem valid, somehow. She finishes with the addictive 'Starry Eyed' and you feel pleased that her stab at being a popstar seems to be going jolly well, if the crowd's reaction is anything to go by.

Elizabeth McGeown