Ellie Goulding
The Relentless Garage, London
10/02/2010

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and judging by the few Ellie Goulding look-alikes graciously floating around in the Relentless Garage tonight, the electro-folk sensation must feel very lauded indeed.

The freshly revamped Islington venue is one of the five places welcoming HMV’s Next Big Thing festival. Unlike Goulding, there’s no doppelganger in the audience for opening act Tinashé. Armed with his acoustic guitar and a contagious smile, the singer-songwriter (accompanied by a drummer) performs to a still-sparse audience. It’s a short yet poppy and catchy efficient set, and the promise of an agreeable future for our ears when it comes to Tinashé.

Swedish ginger ambassador Erik Hassle then takes over the stage with his band that he introduces as a mix of “Vikings and English knights”. If you don’t pay too much attention to some occasional lyrical corniness – nothing wrong with that, it’s pop music after all – and to a voice that doesn’t seem to be pushed to its best, it’s a highly enjoyable moment. Hassle seems to be having fun too, and greets the audience with a few “you’re great, you’re awesome”s.

It’s a few minutes past 10 when Ellie Goulding suddenly but quietly emerges from side of the stage. She seems slightly fazed by the now rammed venue. “I didn’t think it would be that…large”, she says before kicking off with ‘Guns And Horses’. It takes her a couple of songs to look more relaxed, and even joke about some kind of fan club dedicated to her drummer Joe Clegg. Miss Goulding is at her best on an acoustic rendition of ‘Wish I Stayed’, her voice constantly oscillating between an endearing fragility and a surprising strength. The set ends with forthcoming single ‘Starry Eyed’ which gets the crowd bouncing for a few seconds. Ellie leaves the stage with a smile, as simply as she arrived, and gives the impression that being ‘the next big thing’ isn’t such a big deal after all.

Christian Pambrun