Ellie Goulding, Oxford O2 academy, 26/03/10

I've been hideously lazy with this recently - oh dear. I'll try and make up for it now...

Ellie Goulding. Wide eyed, angelic blond hair, welsh mountain stream voice, a folk bedrock and more musical talent than you would assume from a BRIT winner. So why was her Oxford gig on Friday night half filled with incredibly annoying 'wayhay!' ravers more concerned with pulling the nearest vaguely indie scene teen than listening to her sing?

Probably precisely because she won that BRIT. She admitted in the gig that it was overwhelming to play to so many people being more used to crowds of between "2 and 10" than 700. Endearingly she tried to chat to the crowd and introduce her songs though she couldn't be heard where I was half way back in front of the sound desk. She should have been in a smaller venue, with the people who had wittily painted stars next to their eyes taken out and allowed to find her feet and develop with a loving fan base, not a fickle "it was nine quid and i like that track they play on radio one" mass.

Don't get me wrong, she didn't disappoint. Beautiful voice, songs sung in such a manner you actually knew she'd written them; even better live than on the album with more of the folky roots allowed to come through allowing me to understand her description of herself as "future folk". Salt Skin was the stand out track - with a brilliant Japanese style drum addition at the end, and I'll Hold My Breath dedicated to her longer standing fans was stunning.

But I won't be able to think about the gig without remembering the two boys stood next to me for the first few songs, here after referred to a tweedle dee and tweedle slightly more annoying. Dressed in matching tight white t-shirts, fake tan, at least a pot of hair gel each the played drinking games, punching each other in the arm and plunging their fingers into each others drinks. A group of girls quickly latched on to them, after swiftly and bluntly establishing that they weren't gay slightly more annoying was led off by one, presumably not for a better view of the stage, and tweedle dee quickly followed, locking lips with another. This other informed tweedle dee that slightly more annoying's girl was 15 resulting in the whole gang thankfully trouping off to find her, led by a concerned tweedle dee.

Maybe if Ellie's album sales are high enough she can play smaller venues if she wants to, and I hope she does. I'll go and see her. and maybe the tweedles will be replaced by someone more appreciative.