Live Review

Nina Nesbitt – Oran Mor, Glasgow

• 10th Oct 2012

Teenage singer songwriter Nina Nesbitt kicked off her UK tour by wowing a sell out Glasgow crowd. The half Scots, half Swedish, singer played an hour long set and had the, mostly young and mainly female, audience under her spell the whole time.

The night started very early with the opening act on stage not long after 7pm. Well, it was a school night for many, I suppose. Billy Lockett from Northampton was first up, his lively acoustic songs going down well. He has a good stage presence and the closing song Sideways was perhaps the best, getting a good reaction to the singalong section too.

Another acoustic act, Swindon’s Josh Kumra, was also well received. He started with a couple of slow songs and demonstrated a mellow tone and a strong emotional voice. His debut single Helicopters and Planes was very good, a touch of echo on the mic giving a strong vocal effect.

Nina Nesbitt came onto the stage to a tremendous ovation, picked up her acoustic guitar and started with Noserings and Shoestrings, a jaunty pop song. The audience backed her well, singing along to every word, as they did to Glue. The slower Jessica was emotional and the high notes were hit with ease. Nesbitt has a good vocal range and uses it well.

Several new songs were premiered, with an EP to come soon and a debut album already underway. This tour looks to be one with a lot of new material, and from the reaction here it will go down well. Not Me, a track about a relationship break up was delivered with real feeling in a more mature and slightly slower style that worked well. Nesbitt switched to keyboards for Status, a slower track from the EP that was sung beautifully, with real depth to the vocals.

Nina Nesbitt looked relaxed and comfortable on stage, no mean feat for an eighteen year old. She joked with the crowd throughout, threw plectrums off the stage and offered up bags of sweets too. For this tour she has also purchased a bean bag and invites a couple of fans to sit on stage for each of the keyboard numbers. And the chosen few clearly enjoyed having the best seat in the house.

Another new song, The Outcome, had Nesbitt showing a faster guitar style before seguing straight into the current single and clear crowd favourite Boy. Then it was onto electric guitar for a lovely cover of Kodaline’s All I Want, a song she had heard on the radio. This one was played live for the first time and delivered with great passion.

The songs kept coming, Nesbitt seemingly trying to fit as much as possible into her stage time. Apple Tree, the title track from her recent EP, got the biggest cheer of the night, the crowd taking over to sing the chorus. Another new song, The People, saw Nesbitt on electric guitar and also providing a drum beat over a piano backing track. The atmospheric song was close to folk/ rock and perhaps gave a hint of what she might sound like with a full backing band. It sounded great.

All too soon for most the set closed. Another jaunty pop song Something Else was followed by a second cover. It is a mark of Nina Nesbitt’s talent that she managed to make The Proclaimers awful 500 Miles sound decent. There was no encore, although a promise to sign merchandise created a stampede for the back of the hall.

This was an excellent set from an obviously talented young woman. Nina Nesbitt has a maturity on stage that gives her an assured presence and the new songs played showed that she has a deft songwriting touch. She has a big future ahead of her.