Plan B - 14/07/06 - Birmingham Academy 2 With Plan B鈥檚 new album "Who Needs Actions When You鈥檝e Got Words" recently released, his first major UK tour saw him play a date at the Birmingham Academy. Plan B (a.k.a. Ben Drew) mixes a unique blend of acoustic, hip hop and controversial but very personal lyrics. This was one concert not to be missed. Example
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Support for tonight鈥檚 show came from Example. Example are another young hip hop group from London. His little set is great and includes him singing over the top of some famous hip hop tunes. Most of his songs got some great ovations and put the crowd in a great mood for the main act. Plan B Plan B was on next, coming on to the stage to Cliff Richards, Summer Holiday. He was clearly ready to show Birmingham what he was made of. Opening the set with the song "Kidz", which is also the opening song off of his new album, it gets a great ovation. With his first song going down well with the crowd it set the tone for the whole night. "Charmaine" is also played to the crowd who enjoyed the second song as much as the first. This song got people singing to the chorus for the first time in the night. The first official single "Mama", which was released this week, is one of the highlights of the night as it has a great blend of singing and rapping; the crowd join in and help him sing on every available occasion. "Missin鈥 Links" is also a great song to hear live. This song is special as it includes a sample of The Pyramid Song by Radiohead. Dead and Buried
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"Dead And Buried" was the first song of the night where you actually get to hear his singing voice and not just his rapping. He can rap well but his singing voice is also as good. This leaves you wondering why he doesn't sing as much on his songs. "Sick 2 Def" gets personal with a lot of subjects but nevertheless the crowd love it. The one thing about Plan B鈥檚 songs is that he is heavily influenced by everything that he reads or hears. His set continues with some more meaningful and brilliant songs. "No More Eatin" played perfectly for the on-looking crowd and 鈥淓veryday鈥, showing his song writing and his unique and special writing styles perfectly. With the night drawing to a close the best songs were saved for last. "Who Needs Actions When You鈥檝e Got Words", which was taken from a song called Plateau, a cover song by Kurt Cobain was played with the crowd bouncing and dancing with Plan B on stage. No Good The last song of the night was 鈥淣o Good鈥, which was one of Zane Lowe's tracks of the week, was played perfectly and was an enjoyable song to listen to, this song also takes lyrics from the Oxide & Neutrino song No Good 4 Me. Plan B had one more surprise left for the Birmingham crowd. He returned for a one song encore which would have been "Someone Switched in Harvey Nicks" except his Laptop had broken. So the surprise song was "Witness the Sickness" which they had been practicing in rehearsals. This was one of the best songs of the night as it was a shock for people to hear. With Plan B finished for the night he sent all his adoring fans home happy. With his unique sound he obviously doesn't appeal to a lot of music lovers but he definitely went away from Birmingham knowing that he did not disappoint. It was definitely a great concert and Plan B will no doubt play the bigger room next time round. By Paul Tift, site user | 
