We're all quite sweaty

A favourite act in a new, old venue for my first gig of the year!

I first saw Marina (back in her Diamonds day) at Glastonbury in '10 and she's up there with the artists I've seen most live, having also caught up with her at the O2, Royal Albert Hall and BST over the years - and she always delivers.

But I've never been to Alexandra Palace before - I feared it was going to be an almighty faff to get to, but then I realised I could drive to Hatfield and it was two stops down the line, which saved me a good hour off the trip. It really wasn't the right temperature for the walk up the hill, but the views over London were impressive once you made it up there.

And, considering I headed up there before the doors opened (so I'd have time for a nosey around), I was surprised how many people were already there queuing to be let in. It was quite the diverse crowd (L, G, B, T - and me!) but surprisingly young considering how long Marina has been around - I did see a couple of people my age, but it's fair to say we were very much in the minority.

The early arrivals meant the support acts played to quite decent sized crowds - and first up we had Mikayla Geier. She was a quirky Canadian (accompanied by a backing track and a drummer, which is an unusual combination) with a pretty decent stage presence and a very Marina-esque sound, so it went down well. It was her first trip to the UK and, boy, was she happy to be there - she might have mentioned it a few times! It felt a bit weird because she came on at 7:15 and the arena has a glass roof, so it was still light in there but she gave it her best shot. And people very much appreciated it - covering Kylie's “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” showed she was in touch with the audience and they loved it.

Next up, we had Princess Nokia, who was accompanied by a guitarist (who must have been boiling in his skeleton onesie) and a DJ (aka someone to press play at the start of the songs). It was much heavier and rappier than I was expecting and she was very over the top (there was a lot of writhing around on the floor going on) - it wasn't really my sort of thing but she went down well with the audience, so what do I know? And she was obviously having a good time, although she did seem a bit worried about some of the photos that might end up on social media - but maybe she should have remembered to wear a few more clothes on her bottom half? Or am I being old-fashioned here? I'm also not entirely sure that her closing message of "Violence is the answer, kids" was quite what the audience was looking for either..

All of which, after the obligatory thirty minutes of shuffling things around on stage, brought us to Marina, who we were all really here for. The tour is supporting Princess Of Power, her latest album, so it was heavy on tracks from that but the audience have obviously been listening to it on repeat because they knew ALL the words, with "Hello Kitty" and "C*ntissimo" (the pre-song banter of "is anyone feeling c*nty tonight?" set up QUITE the audience chant) obviously already being new favourites. Pretty much everything was met with massive enthusiasm, but other obvious fan faves were "Bubblegum Bitch" and "Primadonna" (from her Electra Heart album, which continues to grow in popularity), "Froot" and "Man's World".

"Man's World" is an interesting one because it really shows off her voice, being far too high for mere mortals to sing - she really has got a great voice and range. And the backing band (guitar, keyboard, drums, backing singers) support her well and are very slick - the tracks all sound studio quality, but with enough changes from the album tracks that you know no-one is cheating. Her overall combination of talent and songs is criminally underrated here imho - it's interesting that the tour has 26 dates in the US but only 7 dates here.

And she get's it right with her audience banter as well, opening with "oh my gosh, it's hot as fuck" (which was extremely relatable) but giving us nuggets throughout about how much the show means to her (it was her biggest European show, with 10k people there) and how she loves her fans (even though we made her cry). And the fans really do add to the live experience because there's a level of devotion there which I rarely get to experience at other shows I go to - you get the feeling that a lot of them have had issues being accepted and Marina's music has helped them through it, so they weren't going to miss out on the opportunity to tell her that and show their appreciation.

A quick word on the venue - we were in the Main Court, which is basically just a huge space, so it felt a little sparse, but the acoustics were decent enough (better than I was expecting certainly) and it definitely helped that they put up some very large screens, so visibility certainly wasn't an issue. Overall, I'd say it was an interesting venue but I won't be rushing back - getting out and home was considerably harder than most venues and I was very glad I was heading North rather than back into town because those trains were BUSY!

But it was a great night out - a solid ninety minute set (with, unusually, no encores) filled with energy and positivity, with a whole lotta love floating around the place which made everyone go away happy. If you get a chance to see her live then she's well worth a visit - it's a very uplifting experience and you'll probably know a lot more of the songs than you think you do.