Whatever happened to Vanessa-Mae, teen prodigy of the classical violin? Currently she is at a career crossroads, trying to beat a path into an unknown region where the violin is as much a part of clubland/electronic music as sequencers and drum machines, while not quite leaving classical music behind. It's impossible to describe her music accurately in a single sentence, which is always bad news from a marketing point of view. You end up with nonsensical terms such as "new world-pop crossover", which is enough to drive people away in droves. It showed at the Palladium, which was by no means full (although the diehard fans seemed happy with it, and the people sitting behind me declared the show "brilliant").
It isn't certain whether Vanessa-Mae can succeed in pop, however. She looks the part, since her face and figure make her automatic pin-up fodder. She skipped out on stage wearing a sleeveless, backless sparkly top and hip-hugging pants, which the various lumps of electronic equipment dangling from her belt threatened to pull down at any moment. But it is difficult to take much of her material seriously.
Toccata and Fugue and the souped-up Vivaldi of Storm may have been amusing novelties in their heyday, but now they sound badly in need of a makeover. When she starts describing her childhood enthusiasm for the arrangements of traditional folk tunes by Bruch, before treating us to a dose of I'm a Doun for Lack o' Johnny, it's as if the new Vanessa-Mae still hasn't worked out how to deal with the previous model, who claimed to have serious classical ambitions running in parallel with her pop leanings.
The stagecraft could do with a bit of polishing up. While Vanessa-Mae likes to deliver introductions in her finishing-school English, her efforts to goad the crowd into a dancefloor frenzy are awkward, as if she has learned them from watching Britney videos on MTV. Having a band who look like a squad of Kwik-Fit fitters doesn't help.
The good news is that some of the material from her latest album, Subject to Change, works rather well. Clear Like Ice has an agreeably floaty, dreamy quality, while White Bird features some arresting pinging noises on the violin and has a cute Europop quality. Vanessa-Mae even dares to sing on it, her voice filtered through all kinds of electronic treatments. But what the future holds, and whether there is going to be a violin in it, is anybody's guess.
