Avril Lavigne

All you really need to recreate an Avril Lavigne concert is one of her albums purchased from your local record store, a workable high-fi system and a group of ten years old borrowed from the local orphanage. Hey-presto you now have your own Blue Peter style create-your-own Avril Lavigne concert.

Or alternatively, you can shell out 25 quid a ticket and treat the whole family to one of Avril's UK tour dates.

The cynics among us may dismiss Avril as a meticulously created media bandwagon but it's difficult to criticize her talent when you watch her on stage. Avril managed to sing, play the guitar, the piano and the drums all within a 90 minute set. Rarely do you get a pop artist that can manage to co-ordinate their dance moves with their miming technique, never alone play three different instruments and manage to sing at the same time.

Support band The Glitterati had given most of the audience a headache with their thrashing heavy metal guitars and screaming vocals. They didn't seem the ideal support given Avril's audience. In comparison Avril's band sounded a lot quieter, with the vocals at the forefront of the performance.

Avril Opened with 'Losing my Grip', taken from her first album 'Let go'. She jumped around stage in the 'skater girl' outfit that has spawned a whole youth generation of imitators. In fact, looking round Glasgow's Carling Academy I couldn't believe how many 'Mini-Avril Lavigne look-a-likes' there were.

It's clear that Avril is a very definite role model for a huge proportion of the crowd tonight, which I think must be a good thing. She writes her own songs [erm... not all of them! - ed], plays her own instruments and sends out a very different message to other female pop artists who spend most of their time cramming their songs with sexual innuendos and portraying themselves as sex symbols while Avril's message is very much to the contrary, especially in songs like 'Don't tell me'.

Avril played a mix from her two albums, including all the singles, saving 'Skater Boi' for the last few songs. She came back on for a two song encore, performing a cover of Blur's 'Song 2' where she played the drums and then taking the mic for the final song of the night, her top 5 hit 'Complicated'.

Avril left stage earlier than expected, leaving me to try and dodge the oncoming pack of 5ft foot skater girls and their respective parents. On reflection it was a good gig and as a vocalist Avril is able to perform just as well as any other female soloist. My only gripe was that the gig sounded identical to the record. Not a bad thing for a pop-artist, but if you're trying to disassociate yourself from the world of bubble-gum pop artists then maybe a bit more variety would have been good.

FUTURE GIGS