Professor Green
Professor Green
O2 ABC, Glasgow
Jonathan Geddes
It's been a difficult time for Stephen Manderson. He was arrested over drink-driving earlier this year, while his third album as Professor Green took three years to emerge. This gig itself was a long time coming, twice postponed and downgraded in size from the O2 Academy, but you couldn't fault the remaining fans for their enthusiasm.
At one stage he clambered into the crowd, only to return complaining he'd been pinched so hard he was bleeding. Manderson was himself full of energy, and he worked the stage well, fully embracing a cheerful pure pop style, albeit with some added swearing.
There was rather more to fault in the actual music, especially those tracks lifted from that troubled recent record, Growing Up In Public. The arrangements were overly muscular, leaving his voice, not always the most powerful, trailing behind, especially compared to female vocalist Katie Holmes-Smith's lung-bursting efforts.
The overall dynamic robbed any character from the wordplay while the melodies were too uninteresting to compensate. Opener Lullaby started slowly and never got going, Little Secrets was glossy 80s pop devoid of personality, and In The Shadow Of The Sun delivered a big ballad strictly by numbers.
The honourable exception was the pacey Name In Lights, with a spy-theme backing and earworm chorus, while some of his older material was more assured, particularly a snappy doubleheader of the INXS-pinching I Need You Tonight and Just Be Good To Green.
The reminder, however, tended towards being polished but hollow party-friendly pop and it was only when Manderson started bantering with the crowd in the encore, mentioning how much being back meant to him, that any real emotion seeped in.
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