There are so many contradictions in the Adele Adkins story it’s difficult to know where to begin. Signed to the painfully cool label that has also given us The xx and masterminded the redemption of Gil Scott-Heron, her music operates in the unabashedly commercial slipstream of Amy Winehouse and Duffy. She is feted for her homespun authenticity, her unvarnished ‘realness’ but, in recent photo-shoots, this ‘ordinary’ South Londoner has been airbrushed and lip-plumped to the point where she is almost unrecognisable. She’s got a cachet Duffy, her erstwhile rival, can only dream of, whilst cultivating a fanbase that, on tonight’s evidence, couldn’t be more mainstream.
What’s beyond doubt is that, at a time when flogging records is a dying art, Adele has cracked the code. Rumoured to be selling 8,000 copies a week in Ireland of her second LP, 21, it feels she’s been at number one since the late Bronze Age. In the UK, meanwhile, she has broken Madonna’s record by topping the charts for ten weeks running. With 21 taking off in the US as well, global stardom would appear a foregone conclusion, as evidenced by her recent appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Along the way she’s been lauded as heir to soul goddesses such as Aretha Franklin. In fact, she follows in the long, not particularly glorious, tradition of Brit divas running all the way back to Alison Moyet. Indeed, close up it turns out her girl next door charm is more EastEnders schtick. There’s a matey “awight Dublin”, followed by something to the effect of “it’s good to be back on home ground” (she does know she’s in Ireland, right?) Whenever she opens her mouth for a natter the ghost of Barbara Windsor swirls through the room.
Not that her personality truly has any bearing on her music. Possessed of a glorious voice, she tosses off high-notes with seeming effortlessness while her band conjure a high-class Jools Holland-style wine-bar boogie. There are several excursions into her 2008 debut, 19, but, understandably, the focus is on 21, a string-basted revenge letter against her first grown-up boyfriend. Delivered with the sort of super-sized sincerity you can’t fake, hits such as ‘Rolling In The Deep’ and ‘Someone Like You’ inspire boisterous sing-alongs from the overwhelmingly female audience so that, at moments, there is a sense of being at the world’s largest (and scariest) hen party. Adele’s success has been astonishing to witness – for all that, it’s difficult to feel very excited about another mainstream soul belter conquering the world, even if this one happens to be brought to you by the world’s hippest record company.