Tinie Tempah

One of Britains hottest new acts is about on his first headline tour, bringing along his friends to most major towns dotted around the UK. Tinie Tempah has certainly stormed the charts recently with hits such as "Pass Out" and Written in the Stars", and his album Disc-overy has also gone gold in a few short weeks. My local O2, Bournemouth Academy was the venue tonight, and was a nice intimate location for the sell-out crowd.

First up, we had Bluey Robinson, a 21 year old London native with a smooth, soulful voice. Bluey did a great job of warming the crowd, with a couple of well known covers mixing in with several of his own tunes. It was great to hear some vocal skills at a gig I was expecting to be dominated with hip-hop, and I am certainly looking forward to seeing where Bluey goes from here.

After a short interlude, Chiddy Bang took to the stage, a two piece that hail from Philadelphia. Chiddy himself took front stage, and is well backed up by "Xaphoon Jones" (Noah Beresin) on drums and production. Resplendent in a beanie cap and bomber jacket, dancing like a loon to the throbbing beats from the sound system, Chiddy certainly seemed well up for the crowd, grinning like a madman and takign the time to talk to members of the crowd between tracks. Chiddy seems to hearken back to a less produced style of hip-hop, letting his flow run the gig instead of a excess of loops and samples.

A brief interlude to show off Chiddys freestyling skills after taking random words from the crowd - ranging from "Bournemouth" to "Marrows" (which Chiddy had to have explained to him!) let the crowd feel more involved, and overall ended up an intimate, yet fun, hip-hop fest. The set was wrapped up with the well-known "Opposite of Adults", which went down well with the predominantly college-set crowd.

And then, on to the main event - Tinie took to the stage amid a flash of lights, a stormy backdrop and decked out in black with the obligatory sunglasses. First surprise for me was the full band he had with him - in an age of DJs and samples, I was genuinely impressed to see guitarists, keyboards and drummers taking the place of a podium with a set of decks. This also added to the rock show feel of the set, as Tinie seemed to be going for the band vibe and the idea of presenting a show. It certainly started well, and the first few numbers built on each other to really get the crowd going.

The only shame was, a couple of small things made Tinie seem to have a bit of a lack of confidence - on too many occasions he took far too long to explain the next song, leading to the crowd talking amongst themselves after the first couple of minutes. The material is good, so the crowd don't need to be walked through it - it should speak for itself.

Second issue was smack in the middle of the set - Tinie decided to start a "karaeoke" session with the crowd, and proceeded to play "Viva la Vida" by Coldplay. Not actually with the band, but pumped through the soundsystem and as a build up to "Written in the Stars". I couldn't help but feel it was again a lack of confidence - "Stars" is a great tune, and stands up on its own, so why build it up with someone elses' song?

Thankfully, despite the interruptions, when Tinie was actually playing, the night was good. Standout moments included "Tears", "Miami to Ibiza" (with Bluey and Chiddy onstage too), and the closing "Pass Out", and overshadowed the lower moments of talking and a weird "Bad Romance" cover. Tinie certainly showed he can easily live up to the hype, and I can certainly see the potential for him to go far. Just an overcoming of some timidity, and a bit more respect for his own music, and the sets should become something fantastic. I hope to catch him again in a year or two when he gets another album under his belt.