Folk siren turned electro hit-machine Vera Blue has the world at her fingertips.
Vera Blue, whose real name is Celia Pavey, has joined Lisa Mitchell and Matt Corby in converting reality show fame into breakaway indie cred. Like Mitchell and Corby, her voice is a refined instrument, but it is her innovative songwriting that has allowed her to escape the fate of the thousands of reality show casualties that have been churned through during the interminable seasons of 'Australian Idol', 'X Factor' and 'The Voice'.
While Celia Pavey came to the public’s attention with a spellbinding rendition of an English folk ballad on 'The Voice', her alter ego emerged from the cocoon as a glorious electro-folk butterfly; a rebirth as glorious as it was unanticipated. Her five track EP ‘Fingertips’ contains three radio hits: ‘Hold’, ‘Settle’ and ‘Fingertips’.
That strike rate looks to continue, as she treated the capacity Jive crowd (15 September) to new, anguished odes to heartbreak, ‘First Week’ and ‘Private’. On stage she resembled a hybrid of Avril Lavigne and Florence Welch; black sneakers and baggy pants; embroidered, lacy, black jacket and a blaze of fiery, red hair. Her emotive lyrics and glass-shattering voice will inevitably draw comparisons to Florence, but such lofty praise is well deserved.
While she has already penetrated international music markets, it is likely that she has only begun her ascent into the stratosphere. She won’t and shouldn’t settle for packed clubs; she has stadiums in her future.
Supporting her on the tour was LANKS, a tunesmith who rivals The Rubens in his ability to compose R&B-infused ear worms. ‘Bitter Leaf’ is addictive, aural candy while ‘Golden Age’ from his new EP that is due to drop in a month is his most popular track yet. He also treated the audience with a version of ‘Heavy As A Heartbreak’, a track with swooping synths that he co-wrote with Just A Gent.
Blue and LANKS joined forces on Illy’s ‘Paper Cuts’, which they performed live on stage for the very first time. ‘Paper Cuts’, ‘Hold’ and Blue’s Like A Version cover of Jack Garrett’s ‘Breathe Life’ were pinnacles of an evening that never hit a low. With the vocal instrument that Blue possesses, the sky is the limit.
