N Dubz - De Montfort Hall 20/04/2010

Dino "Dappy" Contostavlos

Tula "Tulisa" Contostavlos

Richard "Fazer" Rawson

I must confess to being a little apprehensive when handed the assignment of seeing N-Dubz. The Camden trio of Dappy, Tulisa and Fazer have had mixed dealings with the media, but here they were in Leicester's De Montfort Hall (DMH), and judging by the massive queues, their popularity really hasn't been affected at all. Not even the Police metal detector installed in the entrance of DMH could stop the eager audience getting in to see them perform their set.

Being an ardent rock fan, really wasn't sure what to expect. Normally you get in, watch one or two support bands, with 5/10 minutes between each set, followed by the headline act ramping up the atmosphere. With N-Dubz howeer, I actually lost count of how many support acts there were! Each performing sets varying from 4 to 7 songs in front of a white curtain backdrop. The audience certainly responded well, by waving their arms when instructed, or standing up and jumping up and down, or by downloading songs by bluetooth or texting set numbers. Like every genre of music though, most people go to see the headliners, not the support.

This was the really odd thing though, when the support acts finished, the main lights in the Hall came on, and some of the impetus that had been built up by the hard worknig support acts was lost. Fortunately, when everybody started to get restless, the main act came out to a theatrical movie theme tune, teasing the audience a little more by standing behind the semi-transparent curtain whilst performing their opening sequence. Then, just when you thought the audience couldn't roar any louder, the curtain dropped, and the sound was deafening. The set list was pretty comprehensive, of course including, "Na Na" and "Duku Man". My main opening shock was some very hefty guitar work by what can only be described as a Fred Durst evil twin brother lookalike!

Not my sort of music at all, but you can easily see why N-Dubz have become so stupidly popular, despite criticisms levelled at them!