Sophie Ellis Bextor, Brighton Centre

Not yet the perfect pop princess

Posher than Posh, classier than Christina but not nearly as cute as Kylie, Sophie Ellis Bextor may have clawed her way up through the pantheon of pop princesses but she's going to have to take some drastic action if she's to reach the top. Let's face it, the only way she's going to usurp the elfin Aussie is to have her bumped off.

Yet there's something very compelling about the girl with the rhombus face, and tonight she gives it her all. The problem is that her all isn't quite enough. When she appears centre stage in a slinky black dress and six-inch stilettos, the crowd give a gasp of delight. She's a stunner all right, even if her face, so icy and expressionless, is a bit odd.

Yet as the band strike up "Take Me Home", the problems become instantly apparent. She's a curiously immobile performer, moving stiffly around the stage as if balancing invisible plates on her head. I guess there's only so much you can do in spike heels, but her range of moves, basically a series of silhouettes, are pretty limited. Her singing voice, like her face, is also peculiar, with her long vowel sounds rendering phrases like "Gonna burn this goddamn house right down" about as rock'n'roll as Camilla Parker Bowles singing karaoke. Her voice has a slightly nasal quality, too – when she breaks into the high-pitched "Ay-ay-ay-ay" of "Get Over You", I'm sure I'm not the only one clutching my head in pain.

Soon, though, the mask of aloofness disintegrates, and just before "Music Gets the Best of Me", Sophie decides to stop for a chat. "Hello, Brian!" she cries, grinning from ear to ear. "Are you having a good time?"

The audience stare back quizzically. Who the hell is Brian? For a while we wonder if poor Sophie is so short-sighted that she thinks she's playing to an audience of one, but then the truth dawns on us. "Hello, Bright'n" she's saying. It's those long vowel sounds again.

The second half of the show is a vast improvement on the first, not least because our hostess seems to be enjoying herself. "Move This Mountain" is the first song that manages to pack any emotional punch, although it's the disco numbers that really shine. She may profess to hate "Groovejet", the song that took her to No 1, but it's one hell of a dance track and immediately lifts the atmosphere. "What a beautiful dancing partner you've turned out to be, Brian," she beams. "We should do this again some time." The crowd howls back in approval. Brian couldn't agree more.