Corinne Bailey Rae at the Concorde

Summer arrived early yesterday as I strolled down to the Concorde in the late afternoon sunshine for Corinne Bailey Rae's first live appearance in Brighton. Which was somewhat appropriate as the music on offer was well suited to those long Summer evenings. James Morrison got the crowd going with a lively set of pop songs and ballads - hardly my kind of thing, but he did it well and I won't be at all surprised to see his name in the charts later in the year. Corinne too had the talent to back up her recent chart success; after a rather hesitant beginning she soon found her rhythm and by four or five songs in she had the crowd in the palm of her hand. Her set comprised, perhaps unsurprisingly, largely of tracks from her debut album, but she also sang an inspired cover of Led Zeppelin's Since I've Been Loving You. Of course, the most popular tracks were Like A Star which she'd performed on Later last year, and current single Put Your Records On. It's just a pity there's no Glastonbury Festival this year as she'd be an ideal choice for the main stage on the Saturday afternoon, but with other festival appearances lined up this Summer I'm sure they'll help cement her growing reputation. A confident, assured debut and on this evidence we'll be hearing a lot more from Corinne Bailey Rae in 2006.