X Factor's Diana is pretty in pink

Diane Vickers

Wolverhampton Civic Hall

words and pictures by Richard Franklin

Diane Vickers didn't need to win the X Factor to prove herself a star.Finishing fourth didn't prove an impediment to her career; in many ways, it helped it.

Vickers was given the time and space to go her own way, rather than being funnelled via a generic, identikit pop funnel.

That has given her the chance to express herself in the manner of her choosing and the results have been extraordinary.

She's becoming increasingly successful and at the Civic Hall, she played songs from her debut album, currently at Number one, Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree.

Vickers' one-hour-long show breezed past as she thrilled fans with highlights like current single Once, and the charged Four Leaf Clover, which she introduced as being the first song she wrote after appearing on the X Factor.

She'd taken to the stage in stilletos, before reverting to her trademark barefeet - only to have to reappraise after deciding the stage was too slippy!

Diana Vickers' debut album Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree is the result of over a year's worth of work for Diana with an amazing array of co-writers and producers.

The list of collaborators has been as impressive as it is surprising, with Ellie Goulding, Lightspeed Champion, Nerina Pallot, Starsmith, Guy Sigsworth and Cathy Dennis all helping to give the record its mature shape.

But Diana is the one who's kept it box-fresh youthful. Her work with Hackney digi-folk troubadour Lightspeed Champion on Me and You created the straightest pop song on the record, ironically with her most unusual collaboration.

Ellie Goulding's co-written Remake Me and You meanwhile, was the strangest cut and live it became a jittery stop-start electro boogie that lodged itself in the memory.

Vickers may not have been a winner when she performed before Cowell and co on the UK's leading channel show. But she was exactly that when she starred at the Civic.

Set List:

The Boy Who Murdered Love

You'll Never Get To Heaven

Jumping Into Rivers

Remake Me and You

NUMB

Four Leaf Clover

Put iT Back Together Again

Just Say Yes

My Hip

Once

(Encore)

Notice