Back in 1998 I received an album by Urban Species called BLANKET. The title track was sung by one Imogen Heap and I was struck my her distinctive and magnetic voice. I loved the album but it never ocurred to me to check out Miss Heap, perhaps because she had a ‘bit-part’ on this recording. Over the next few years her name and voice cropped up several times but never on her own album so I continued to ‘pass her by’. Late in 2005 I received an album by Imogen Heap called SPEAK FOR YOURSELF which gradually became my favourite electro-pop album of all time. I just had to see the lady perform live and in 2006 I witnessed a truly oustanding (seated) concert at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall where she performed with band, followed by a solo gig at the year’s V Festival.

A fabulous album and two memorable live shows was enough for me to make Imogen our Artist Of The Year. 2006 was an interesting year. Two artists who seemed to have been ignored by the music media produced some of their best work - Glen Hansard’s SWELL SEASON (his band the Frames also released an excellent album in 2006) and Imogen Heap’s SPEAK FOR YOURSELF. Both albums featured in our top 5 albums of the year but no other print or Internet magazine even mentioned them, and of course neither secured national or regional UK airplay. For me, this scenario pretty well summed up the state of the UK music media and the dumbing down of broadcast music especially by the BBC. It’s now the closing weeks of 2010 and the situation has worsened meaning that many great artists have been forced to ‘go direct’ via the Internet, a strategy that Heap has adopted with some success.

It’s been 4 long years since I heard any new music from Heap or seen her perform live. I still hadn’t heard her latest album ELLIPSE at the time of the show so it was to be an opportunity to the songs live before asking Mr Ebay for help… I was somewhat concerned though at the choice of venue which hasn’t the best acoustic reputation and gets unbelievably hot for artists and audience. My fears were temporariy cast aside when I saw the stage decked out with a cut-out tree and a host of instruments, Apple-macs, her famous perspex piano (which holds a few electronic keyboards) and other electronic gadgetry all mathematically placed leaving an empty performance space in the middle of the stage.

That space was soon to be occupied by a casually dressed and cosmetic-free Heap (Miss Cole would never look this good stripped back to basics) who introduced the night’s first act, Ben Christophers. Hell, even before she performed Heap had garnered applause through making an effort that few other artists ever attempt in introducing their support acts. I have not seen Christophers for many moons but within seconds I was reminded of this singer/songwriter’s wonderful, natural and expressive vocal quality. Loved by the critics, shunned by the broadcast media like so much great UK talent (including Heap). I was never 100% happy with Christophers’ songs and it seemed to me from this performance that he has turned the corner and at last is writing the most beautiful songs. He performed solo with a keyboard, guitar, drum machine and in this unfriendly acoustic environment sounded truly wonderful.

Next to be introduced by Heap was a duo who she went overboard in praising. Geese are Vincent Sipprell and Emma Smith backed by Heap’s drummer. I love musical adventure but in this environment found the duo difficult to listen to, and really needed an explanation as to what this music meant. It was ‘avant garde’ which is fine, but it lacked coherence and melody ending up as just noise. Given a smaller, seated venue with some explanation would have been far better…