Ellie Goulding at Leeds O2 Academy - 2nd Nov 2010

The gig starts off explosively with Ellie Goulding’s debut single ‘Under the Sheets’ forcing everyone’s attention to the stage. She appears statuesque in a military jacket and starts pounding on the drums for a few bars before taking her rightful place at the front of stage. A screen stretching the whole of the back wall is alight with a ‘wall of fire’ effect, adding to the mystical feel. She has a powerful voice with an ethereal eminence; a twist of Cyndi Lauper makes her tracks instantly recognisable.

The music almost shouldn’t work; acoustic and electric guitar, tribal drums and heavy synths but she makes it work amazingly. Pure pop magic with just a twist of chilled drum and bass, suggestive of Kosheen and Massive Attack.

Somewhere in the middle of the gig the audience gets a bit lost though. What started out as a euphoric and energetic show wanes slightly as Ellie is left alone on stage to sing acoustically, it is just such a change in tempo that it’s a bit jarring.

The last third of the gig gets going again and it really is a case of saving the best till last. It looks like Ellie and the band are having so much fun on stage and the audience obviously love every second of it. You can’t but help to get caught up in the excitement and energy. For someone so young and only at the start of her career Ellie Goulding puts on a polished show with a presence larger than her petite frame. If this is what she is like for her first tour the next is going to be electric. 

Published in Yorkshire Evening Post