Gabrielle

Gabrielle's success in Ireland continues apace - the last time she played this venue it was to a seated crowd who simply refused to sit down. This time the seats have been stored to make way for a full-house of standing, swaying bodies, hundreds of them mouthing the words to the songs and generally having as much fun as you can have in a sauna with all your clothes on.

Gabrielle, meanwhile, clearly isn't having as much fun as the (predominantly female) audience. A recurring technical difficulty with an ear-piece monitor interrupts her flow of conversational ease, and the first impression you receive from this is that, as a commercial soul diva, Gabrielle is on the money; as an exponent of between-song banter she needs all the lessons money can buy.

Not that the audience seemed to mind. Gabrielle is, thankfully, a one-name pop star with no airs or graces, her lack of pretension reaching out to the throng and making her one of their own. There is also nothing at all fussy about her music; it's a straight down the line mixture of pop, soul, slight funk, ersatz Tamla Motown rhythms and good fun, high-energy cabaret, the latter most notably in the extended session where she and her tight-as-this band covered Sly &The Family Stone's Dance To The Music, Simon & Garfunkel's Feelin' Groovy and Stevie Wonder's Uptight (Everything's Alright).

The remainder of the show featured her many hits: Dreams, Sunshine, Give Me A Little More Time and the positively anthemic Rise, with her Bob Dylan Knockin' On Heaven's Door sample going down a treat.

While it's hardly cutting edge material, it's neither false nor bows to trends. Instead, it's smooth (but not slick) and as stylish as Gabrielle's long black stage coat she plain refused to take off despite the heat. Her coat might have been hiding something, but her music certainly wasn't.