“It feels like I’ve been invited to a party and I’ve turned up on the wrong day” said Victoria Hesketh (aka Little Boots) nearing completion of her recent performance at the Anson Rooms on Halloween. Ending a twelve-song set, Hesketh made the remark; assumed to refer to the crowd’s poor participation throughout. And Hesketh had every right to be aggrieved on what was the finale of her nine-date headline tour in the UK.
The 25-year-old from Blackpool has enjoyed huge success and critical acclaim throughout 2009 with her debut album, ‘Hands’, entering the UK album chart at number five in June. However, she is most well-known for her 2nd single, ‘Remedy’, which rose to number six in the singles chart. This song was, by far, the best received and the only one most of the crowd seemed to know the words to. Could this be due to the nature of the music industry nowadays? Does the ability to download single songs from iTunes and other illegal sources mean the remaining albums that artists perform when playing live are ignored? More people accessing individual tracks may lead to increased ticket sales but does this prevent albums being appreciated as a whole? Do smaller artists, with a lack of singles, suffer discouraging crowd support throughout their shows?
Something that could definitely not be criticised was Hesketh’s performance. The way she involves herself in each of her electro-pop-dance masterpieces creates a breathtakingly mysterious spectacle, teasing the crowd with her collection of electronic mechanisms throughout.
After seeing her play to a packed NME tent at Reading Festival earlier in the year, there was no doubt in my mind that Little Boots was destined for greatness, backed up by the fact that her live performance ‘Symmetry’ brings across the synth-pop magic of The Human League, even without Phil Oakley present in his vocal slot.
Ending with the truly mesmerizing ‘Stuck on Repeat’, Hesketh transforms the hushed atmosphere, with the aid of her piano, to an irresistible electronic-dance melody accompanied by a scintillating progression of lighting and gliding movements on stage and her now renowned ‘Tenori-on’.
Dressed in an ethereal ghost-white flowing material with a spooky, fluid, glam-rock hairstyle and black, webbed face-paint she created a truly artistic figure making this Halloween performance truly memorable. It was just a shame the audience did not fully immerse themselves in the experience. Little Boots is not just ‘Remedy’… She is so much more than that.
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