BRITISH SOUL SINGER Gabrielle might have sold a million records, but she's still small fry in international pop terms, and the modest turnout at Dublin's Olympia last night showed that the Brit Award winner has yet to capture the ultimate prize of major league stardom. At least she's got a trio of hit singles to her name:
Give Me A Little More Time, Dreams and Dionne Warwick's Walk On By and when she performed them as an encore she well and truly won the crowd over.
It was a bit of an uphill struggle, however, and the long delay between support act and main attraction didn't help. When the band finally hit the stage, they warmed up with a sort of soul overture, lending an uncomfortable air of cabaret to the evening's entertainment. Even when Gabrielle herself came on stage, wearing dark glasses and a dark two-piece dress suit, she took a little time to warm up, delivering songs like Because Of You and I Live In Hope, backed up by brass section, backing singers, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards.
The UK soul revue plodded on with People May Come And People May Go, Gabby trying to rouse the crowd with shouts of "I can't hear you!" Eventually, she got the crowd on its feet and clapping along to Baby I've Changed and Do You Feel What I Feel, before settling into a slow ballad, If You Really Cared. Another slow song, Alone, worked better with its lone acoustic guitar accompaniment, by which time the crowd was more than ready for the hits.
Looks like Gabrielle needs to sell a few million more records before she can really bring the punters in.
