Plan B at Wolverhampton Civic Hall - concert review

Plan B, Civic Hall,

Wolverhampton

Make your mind up, son; you're either angry urban rapper or crooning Northern Soul boy.

Mixing the two was an undeniable masterstroke but the strain is starting to show, and keeping up the split personality is getting harder with each sell-out show.

That's the thing when you produce an album as good as The Defamation of Strickland Banks.

It becomes the sound of the suburbs, not the inner-city heartland. And it brings the mainstream crowd with it.

And so it was that last night's show had a schizophrenic edge. The seven-piece backing band was note perfect but the main man seemed disconnected, as if he's seen the writing on the wall — and doesn't like it one bit.

Early on, it seemed as soulless as soul can get, as on stage Plan B lacked the charisma of the complex — but fictional — Banks played out on a video screen.

That's not to say the music wasn't great; a seething mix of streetwise angst, run through with bittersweet soul music, sheathed in a falsetto delivery lurching into urban rap.

And things built to a rousing finish, helped along largely by tracks not on the Defamation album. A lively cover of Paolo Nutini's Coming Up Easy lifted the last third of the show before the Chase and Status collaboration Pieces broke the shackles off and it was like watching an entirely different — and better — performance.

The set was revitalised as The Recluse gave PB and his band renewed energy before electrifying encore Stay Too Long saw the singer bounce off the walls before heading for a party at Oceana.

Thankfully, a new album and new direction beckons for one of Britain's most promising and important young artists. He looks like he needs it.

Review by Keith Harrison.

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