In just over three years Olivia Dean has gone from taking the stage at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow to selling out two nights at the city’s largest venue. Such a leap up in surroundings in a short space of time did not seem to faze Dean though, the 27-year-old Londoner possessing both a honeyed voice and a Disney Princess smile onstage.
She was confident enough, in fact, to drop in a cover of the classic “Movin On Up” late on. It was a risky choice that did not totally work, but you could not fault the boldness of it, and you can understand why she has reason to feel such self-belief, given the success of last year’s Art of Loving album – which comprised about half the set here – and the clutch of Brits she walked away with back in February. She also had a crowd who were rabidly onside, to the extent she even gently teased them for cheering everything she said at one point.
In fact, the early going was a little too gentle and smooth in general. Dean is an absolutely terrific singer, but her band were obscured on the early “Nice to Each Other” with the drums way above everything else, particularly the brass. A retro soul track like “So Easy (To Fall In Love) meanwhile, placed all the focus on Dean’s voice to the extent that the actual tune felt a sickly sweet accompaniment, and it wasn’t until a rousing “Let Alone the One You Love” kicked in that the night started to pick up pace.
The slick stage set-up resembled a 60s music show set, a seven-piece band and two backing vocalists behind her on a raised section with Dean herself strolling about. That format, with Dean dropping in snippets of chat that tended to be brief explanations of each song’s meaning, added to a formal feel, and even old track “Messy”, with its ba-da chants, came across rather timid.
Ironically, it was when the night became stripped back briefly that it started to take a life of its own. A sea of lights from phones illuminated the darkness during “UFO”, with Dean, her guitarist and bassist perched on stools, and a spirited strum on “Touching Toes” showcased off both her voice and her ability to connect with fans, all swaying along.
However, it wasn’t until her band cut loose on a funky, saxophone dominated “Echo” that the formality truly fell away, with the jam session also letting Dean get ready for a trip to a B-stage in the centre of the room. She worked the crowd expertly at that point, culminating in singing a powerhouse “The Hardest Past” while returning to the main stage.
That looser feel carried over into the rest of the show, and the songs felt both beefier and more danceable the rest of the way. “Baby Steps” was a partying delight, the whole band descending steps and dancing across the stage, before “Ladies Room” was a slab of funky pop that could have dropped in via timewarp from the late 70s or early 80s.
Dean was perfectly sweet and charming throughout, to the extent she genuinely seemed humbled by a fan waving a sign that said this was her 15th time seeing the singer. However, she’s much more fun as a personality when really getting a groove on, dancing across the floor with glee during the strut of “Dive” and a set-closing “Man I Need”, a banger that called to mind Whitney Houston’s 80s classics. It managed to both show up the slightly staid nature of some of her other material, while also justifying her surge in popularity with an emphatic bop.
