Shot! Anne-Marie live in Brighton

The Essex dance-pop sensation put on a show that left her fans wanting more

When you go to as many gigs as I do, you often get to see artists at the beginning of their careers supporting a bigger name or low down on a festival bill. Household names I first saw supporting include George Ezra (opening for Tom Odell in Southampton) and James Bay (opening for Rae Morris at a tiny venue in Brighton)

Often you get a feeling, a feeling that a particular artist or band have the makings of something special — Dua Lipa at Brighton Pride a couple of years ago for example — but for every dead cert to make it, there are those who go onto bigger and better things that surprise you.

The reason for my preamble is I’d seen Anne-Marie twice before: once when she ’fronted’ Rudimental (at the inaugural Wild Life festival I believe) and in 2016 as a solo act on the Pride bill (the same day I saw Dua Lipa) And whilst there was the seeds of something special about Ms Lipa, to me Anne-Marie was just another competent singer. So her recent elevation to popstar status was somewhat of a surprise.

That being said, success of course happens for reasons that are as varied as they are difficult to pinpoint, and luck often plays a big part. For a featured artist that usually means singing on someone else’s huge hit. That happened for Anne-Marie in 2016 with Clean Bandit’s chart-topper Rockabye which spent 9 weeks at No 1.

Of course, touring and collaborating with someone as hugely popular as Ed Sheeran also helped propel her into the spotlight. He even co-wrote the hit single 2002 with her.

And of course, timing is everything as right now there is clearly a burgeoning market for female singers who teenage girls can relate to — not just in their appearance, but in the attitude they bring to their songs, which often deal with female issues.

Perhaps somewhat counterintuitive, these sassy females appeal almost entirely to young girls. And so it was with Anne-Marie. When the queue for the ladies stretches out the door, and girls can be found in the men’s toilet, you know the audience is heavily female focused.

Needless to say, the gig was sold out, indeed Anne-Marie could easily have played down the street at the much bigger Brighton Centre. That probably indicates her success has really spiked in the last six months or so.

Young girls, many carrying home-made signs, packed the standing area in anticipation of seeing the 28-year-old from Essex. The 4-time nominee at this year’s BRITs Awards (for best female, song, album and video) doesn’t just possess a strong voice, but she’s also a black belt in karate. Indeed, Anne-Marie Nicholson, to give her her full name, is a former UK karate champion. She’s clearly someone with a burning desire to succeed.

The Guardian recently described her music as being ”fashionably sterile.” While hardly a compliment, it is nonetheless pretty accurate of so much chart music today. It went on to call Anne-Marie ”a music maker tooled to climb the charts.” Considering Speak Your Mind was last year’s biggest-selling debut album in the UK, they’re not wrong.

With all that, you might be wondering what her Brighton show was like? Well, I have to say there was nothing that special about it. That’s not to say she didn’t put on a good show — I’ve no doubt her fans loved it — but for me, it just didn’t have the wow factor.

The highlights would firstly be Anne-Marie’s personality. Infectious and down to earth, I’m sure she’s very relatable, as are many of her songs, to her audience. Most appear to have been inspired by break-ups and celebrate female empowerment.

The audience also played their part, singing along with gusto: at one point, they began singing the opening of a song before it had even been introduced!

Sonicly, it sounded bright but a little bland. The three musicians onstage were particularly anonymous, so much so it was questionable whether they were producing everything we were hearing. It’s also somewhat odd for an Essex girl to sing with Such an American affectation. Indeed, the difference between her speaking and singing voice is disconcerting.

Visually, it also left something to be desired. There were of course the inevitable LED screens, but there wasn’t much creativity in evidence as to what was put on them.

Perhaps, the poorest aspect of the entire production, however, was the lighting, as much of the time Anne-Marie was either dimly lit , or for long periods not illuminated at all. Dressed in black, she was frequently just a dark figure onstage — a follow spot would have made a big difference.

But the biggest misdemeanor was the running time. A 65-minute performance from a headline act is hardly good value. We didn’t even get an encore.

Only later did I learn this was actually Anne-Marie’s second performance of the day. Earlier, she’d played to 80,000 at Wembley Stadium at Capital Radio’s teen-focused Summertime Ball: something she never once mentioned.

And for any fans who thought they may have been short-changed at the Dome, that wasn’t the only thing they missed out on, as Anne-Marie’s Wembley performance featured 8 dancers (wearing white suits printed with the words Speak Your Mind)

Had she brought them with her to the south coast they could have at least added a little ’pizzazz’ to a show that needed something more.

Setlist: Bad Girlfriend | Cry | Do It Right | Heavy | Perfect To Me | Trigger | Ciao Adios | Can I Get Your Number? | Don’t Leave Me Alone (David Guetta cover) | Alarm | Then | Rockabye | 2002 | FRIENDS

“To me, shooting live music is all about capturing the personality of the performer and the emotion of their performance. And then creating an iconic image.”

Behind the image: I was only able to shoot the first three songs from the pit. As always, my focus was on taking tight portraits, rather than wide stage shots. All these images (with the exception of the stage shot which I took on the iPhone 8 Plus from the back of the venue) were taken with the OM-D E-M1 and the 75mm 1.8 lens using the in-camera digital zoom and available light only. I was actually a little surprised that I came away with half a dozen or so portraits I really like. For that, I have to thank Anne-Marie’s latest hairstyle, which was particularly photogenic. It’s just a shame today’s microphones are so damn big! Shot in Brighton on 8 June 2019.