In the current over-manufactured, Pop Idol-crazed pop scene, there are still people who make it to the top via hard work, devotion and pure talent. Sophie Ellis Bextor is not among them.
The daughter of Blue Peter's Janet Ellis gives the impression of a dilettante trying out a selection of styles. She has been indie girl, model and Loaded temptress, although she was catapulted to stardom via her appearance on Spiller's single Groovejet (If This Ain't Love), which trounced Posh Spice in the charts.
Bextor's voice is often comically awful; 45 minutes out of this hour-long appearance would have had difficulty making it into the set of a Toyah Wilcox tribute act. But this gig is less about Bextor's music (which is just as well) than a celebration of the magazine-friendly It girl herself and her ability to wear clothes astonishingly well. She does not disappoint. In a revealing slinky number, she throws Garbo poses, wears her hair back like a Roxy cover girl, wiggles her bottom to the beats and, most entertainingly, adopts hand gestures usually seen in paintings of Indian goddesses with several arms. But such is the dearth of material that she throws in her first band Theaudience's A Pessimist Is Never Disappointed, a reed-thin indie jangle.
The newer tunes sound older: squeaky 1980s synth horrors that the band - grimacing with forced enthusiasm - maul with horrible guitar solos. But Bextor's three hits transform the atmosphere from morgue to party. New tune Get Over You is cut from the same cloth as Groovejet, Take Me Home and the Blondie-esque Murder on the Dancefloor, all perfect for that office party disco wobble.
However, it's a long way from Theaudience's early Krautrock to these squeaky production-enhanced stompers. Bextor has no emotional empathy - pop seems merely a stepping stone on her quest for celebrity. She may wing it for a couple more hits, but then will probably reappear in Emmerdale, or, if there's inspired casting, as posh tottie fed dangerous drugs by those naughty working-class horrors in Bad Girls.
· Sophie Ellis Bextor plays the Regent Theatre, Ipswich, (01473 433100) tomorrow, then tours.
