VV Brown – Nottingham Rescue Rooms, Monday November 16.

Widely tipped for stardom at the start of the year, VV Brown may not have set the charts alight during 2009, but a critically acclaimed debut album has nevertheless set her career off on a promising path. A tall, striking woman, with a unique look that has won her several prestigious modelling assignments, VV certainly looks like a pop star – and last night at the Rescue Rooms, it soon became clear that she has substance to match the style.

After a successful summer’s work on the festival circuit, and boosted by a memorable turn on Jools Holland’s Later, VV attracted a slightly older audience than you’d normally find for a pop artist. Her younger female fans were pressed down at the front, while those in their late twenties and early thirties hung further back.

Warm, beaming and eager to please, VV rattled confidently through most of the tracks from her album, pausing to offer a pair of contrasting covers in the middle of the set. Her rendition of Over The Rainbow drew repeated whoops of applause, which lasted all the way through the song. It was followed by a thumping take on Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, which had the whole crowd bellowing along with her.

A new song (Caroline) was debuted for the encore: an angry, charged rocker, which spoke of betrayal by a former friend. It showed VV at her best: passionate, committed and in control. If she can hold onto that intensity, and maybe lose some of the more obvious crowd-pleasing manoeuvres in the process, then we could be witnessing the birth of an intriguing artist.