Morning:
5°c
Rick Pearson's rating
Talent meets attitude with Rox
By
Rick Pearson
9 Feb 2010
Rox is the latest Brits school graduate to plan an assault on the charts. If that sounds about as inviting as slamming your head in a car door, it shouldn’t — this south Londoner has something worth listening to.
The Norbury girl may have shared a school with Adele and Leona Lewis, but Roxanne Tataei’s slick R’n’B suggests Sade and Lauryn Hill were her real mentors.
With her debut, Memoirs, due out in June, she came to the Jazz Café as part of the HMV Next Big Thing series.
Backed by a tight six-piece band, which included two backing singers who at times threatened to overpower her soulful voice, she began her nine-song set with My Baby Left Me, a sassy refrain on lost love, sung over funky stop-start backing.
The piano-led ballad Sad Eyes suggested a more sensitive side, although it was the reggae reworking of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams that drew the loudest cheer from the crowd.
Still only 21, the diminutive singer lacked nothing for attitude. The sassy I Don’t Believe came complete with “speak to the hand” gestures, while the sun-dappled reggae of Rocksteady only began once those seated at the upstairs tables had been ordered to their feet.
Whether Rox quite has the songs to match the chutzpah remains to be seen. For now, though, we should all stand up and pay attention.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (3)
Do you think musicians become good overnight without any training? I can only think of about 3 people who have become successful without being taught an instrument by somebody else.
I'm not saying artists who haven't been to BRIT are bad, or that people who have come from the school are better than everyone else, I just don't like the way they have got a bad reputation for good performance artists.
And if you don't like Leona or Adele, there is a long list of alumni who have being successful in the performing arts, I'm sure there is someone you like.
- John, London, 17/02/2010 00:41
Report abuse
John, you make me laugh!
Adele is terrible, and Leona has done precious little apart from massacre a perfectly good Snow Patrol song.
If people perceive the Brit School as being the leading light in the UK music industry, it's in a sorry old state. Whatever happened to the days when a group of lads could get together, play their own instruments, and have a gig on Top of the Pops, without all this Brit School nonsense??
- Jock, Glasgow, 11/02/2010 21:02
Report abuse
Can you not judge artists on the school they come from as it is insulting to both artists that have become successful and used to go there such as Leona Lewis and Adele, and also to students who are currently attending BRIT who are hoping to make it in the industry. Thank you.
- John, London, 09/02/2010 23:35
Report abuse
