Dappy, IndigO2 - review

While the Camden rapper has been involved in various controversies and run-ins - offences range from sending threatening texts to a Radio 1 listener to behaving so badly he was asked to leave Alton Towers - his audience was largely made up of teenage girls and their parents.

Some of these families were probably next door for Dappy's group N-Dubz, when they played the arena earlier this year. His concert at the cosier Indigo2 was notably less ambitious: I've seen O2 Arena encores last longer than his 35-minute set.

For all its brevity, though, there was not a moment wasted during a frenetic, catch-your-breath performance.

Wearing a woolly hat, one black glove and underpants protruding from his trousers, Dappy skipped around as if the stage were electrified, and his rapping was furious alongside a polished band on the Tinchy Stryder collaboration Spaceship.

Perhaps aware that this audience might have a limited attention span, there were fireworks, sudden blasts of dry ice and a medley of N-Dubz hits including love rat anthem Playing with Fire and Best Behaviour, during which an animated Dappy got everyone waving their arms.

Such was Dappy's hyperactivity he maintained a running commentary while rapping and singing.

"I don't even know why I'm touring," he admitted, owning up to his lack of finished solo material.

At least the side project kept Dappy busy while cousin and bandmate Tulisa steered Little Mix to X Factor victory.

When the third N-Dubz member, Fazer, made a surprise appearance for a rap duet on So Alive, it felt like Tulisa might show up, too. Naturally, the screams were deafening when Dappy clumsily told us "make some noise for Tulisa".

Unbelievably, he was referring to a recorded vocal: there was no Tulisa, only her disembodied voice.

He just about recovered for Rockstar, on which his female guitarist gamely reproduced the Brian May solo that appears on this next single.

Dappy then demonstrated a faultless pop sensibility on the anthemic No Regrets, his lone solo hit to date, that wrapped up this brief set.

Foolishly, he returned to the stage not to sing but rather, in the spirit of David Brent, to show off a platinum sales award.

On the way out, there was grumbling from those fans who felt short-changed. If he wants them to attend the 2012 arena tour he kept promising, Dappy will have to find another 45 minutes of material from somewhere.

Dappy
IndigO2
Peninsula Square, SE10 0DX