The anti-pop star (From This is Hampshire)

The anti-pop star

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ADELE’s appearance in Southampton this week was somewhat different to the last time she was in town.

The gig, this time standing and sweaty rather than a more lacklustre seated affair, sold out almost immediately after going on sale and was besieged with ticket touts trying to make a quick buck from the girl of the moment.

But Adele herself remained just the same – incredible, spinetingling vocals, dressed demurely, cackling away and engaging the audience with witty anecdotes which involved her dislike of her ex-boyfriend, her Mum going on a paragliding adventure and her writing a song perfect for Peggy from EastEnders.

Very normal, down-toearth and not affected in the slightest by the massive hype currently surrounding the Grammy Award winning singersongwriter and undoubted star of this year’s Brits. Or so I thought.

I’m choosing to ignore a sighting of her and her tiny dog arriving at the Guildhall in a limousine and have an idea her reluctance to allow photographers into the pit must have just been stage fright. She did say she was too nervous to wear her planned summer dress on stage, opting instead for a trademark black tunic.

Adele doesn’t use clever pyrotechnics or auto tuning on stage and she doesn’t fall out of night clubs showing too much flesh. She lets her voice to the talking.

She’s the anti-pop star, the one who beat the rest without even trying and the one who puts her heart and soul into her singing. And I think she could seriously shake things up in the record industry, a place where obsessive imitation of anyone successful is the norm.

Adele got where she is by doing what she liked, regardless of pop trends.

I wouldn’t like to see most of the manufactured pop stars out there without their fancy on stage fireworks or clever techniques to play with their voices.

But if Adele’s refreshing performance here this week is anything to go by, I look forward to seeing a whole lot more of her.

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