Hairline have long been champions of Camille O’Sullivan, being one of the finest singers you will ever hear. She takes the songs of the likes of Jaques Brel, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave and dramatically moulds them into her own gutsy, emotional interpretations. The results are spectacular and Camille more than deservers her five star rating she gets from practically every reviewer out there.
Chameleon is her latest show, many of the old set list highlights that have followed her for years are gone, such as ‘Kirsty MacColl’s ‘In these shoes,’ and Nick Caves’ ‘Are you the one’, and they have rather boldly been replaced with a more rocky sound which slowly settles into a fragile mood and only beings to really impress around the half way mark. As she delivers a stunning A Capella cover of Jacques Brel’s ‘The port of Amsterdam’. The new songs are all impeccably performed but lack the ferocious, playfulness of previous years. There is not many songs that comes even close to her version of Bowie’s ‘Rock and roll suicide’ which had the crowd stunned just last year.
New song choices aside, Chameleon feels far more like a theatrical show than ever before, and it’s all the better for it, creating a magical world using costume changes, a lit up swing and a beautiful and effective moment with her opening a suitcase laid flat on the floor, that lights up when open.
But something is seriously a miss tonight, this kitten seems to have had her claws cut. Sipping water instead of her trademark bottle of red she gives a decent if unspectacular performance. With her fiery temper only showing in a flash when an someone in the crowd boos her and she challenges him for it, demanding the crowd stop clapping while she hunts out the culprit. It looks like things are about to explode, but then she bursts into tears sobbing through her final song. Thankfully the audience are behind her and give her a loud, thunderous standing ovation which of course she deserves.
Camille O’Sullivan is one of the most awe inspiring singers you will ever, ever see. But this is one of her weaker shows that doesn’t quite impress as it should. However even Camille on a bad night can still knock out the competition.
4/5 
Martin Miller
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