Gigs - Lana Del Rey - Manchester Apollo

Star rating - 8/10

Everything about Lana Del Rey screams star. Her stage set is a large scale sumptuous art deco palace complete with two big lion statues and palm trees. Her thousands of young fans were screaming for her long before she slinked onto the stage, and they carried on screaming wildly throughout her polished, and unexpectedly endearing performance. The giddy atmosphere resembled  what I imagine it was like at a Beatles gig in the 1960's.

Her opening song, Cola ,was just about audible over the crowd over exuberance, and in truth it could have stood being a bit louder to really appreciate her beautiful smooth voice and intelligent, poignant lyrics over the din. She continued with sweeping songs from her two albums including majestic sweeping strings on her Blue Velvet cover; Born to Die which showcased her undeniably fabulous voice with this sad tales of lost innocence and wild love; and the new song for The Great Gatsby movie Young and Beautiful. It was lovely, and although I haven't seen it yet my guess is that the song is far better than the film itself.

She oozed movie star charisma, with the fragility to match, as she wandered amongst her adoring fans signing autographs from the off. It might be churlish of me but I feel that she really should have been doing a bit more singing and a bit less mingling - although to be honest I am probably in a tiny minority with that opinion.

There was a slightly self indulgent video about her 'journey' so far mid set, and to be fair the video backdrop throughout the set was very watchable. Video Games was the inevitable brilliant highlight of the evening. It was followed by the last song National Anthem, which in truth was part number, and part more mingling and taking photos of the audience on her phone, and having hers taken back in return.  It was a bit of a love-in all round.

Lana Del Rey is clearly a phenomenon who means a lot to young women of a certain age, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I couldn't help but warm to her charm and undoubted talent, although the screaming I could really have managed without.