QX Magazine

28/07/12: Last Saturday, the stage at Heaven belonged to our homegrown, Brighton boy, touted as the Brit’s answer to Justin Bieber  – and with the cloying masses of females after him, and the gays who seemingly shattered out of their icy, on-looking cool when Conor Maynard erupted from the wings, it may just be a true story.

The blonde coastal boy, all crooked grins and urban charisma, was clearly going for gold on his Olympic season debut at the super-club, a medallion offsetting his blue bomber, printed T, tight black jeans and… lime-like-a-tennis-ball green kicks.

Even the high-octane pacing of the luminous shoes couldn’t retain our attention though, when the live band struck-up and Conor began to croon… and how! The first song was the racy ‘Animal’, and Maynard’s velvety voice certainly had some men looking at the very least a restraining order with the way they clamoured around the stage; before anyone could get their claws in – the crowd were already being re-directed to the ceiling for the crooner’s new single, ‘Vegas Girl’.

The filthy beats had the boys on the main floor and overlooking balconies in fierce competition with the four swimsuit-clad females doing their bit onstage. The third track was the Ne-Yo written ‘Turn Around’ and the fourth was another nod to a commercial powerhouse, our girl Rihanna – with Conor’s cover of ‘Only Girl in the World’, with a Ne-Yo and Kelly Rowland medley twist thrown in for good measure.

Of course, the final song was the one we’d been waiting for – and the sultry ‘Can’t Say No’ didn’t have a stiff body in the house… well, not in the dance department anyway. Yes, I think the consensus is that Conor can come again!

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Heaven, Villiers Street, WC2N 6NG
Words by Yafeu Brown
Photos by Chris Jepson