Gig review: Professor Green, Glasgow Academy

HACKNEY rapper Professor Green has reached that point in his career where he can concentrate on enduring artistic credibility or take every offer that comes his way and settle into the cosy role of bad boy turned light-entertainment fixture.

The decision, it seems, has already been taken, with his appearance on Made in Chelsea earlier this month indicating which way it’s been made.

Even without this knowledge, there was the strong suggestion of something crowd-pleasing and safe about this show. It wasn’t the work of an innovator, more the slick application of a formula that does the job.

Crunching bass breakdowns like the one during Monster were few and far between – instead, tight-loined declarations of intent like Into the Ground’s “Before I’m done I’m’a run this town into the ground” were the manly order of the day.

Culled mainly from his second, breakthrough album At Your Inconvenience, the set descended into a moment of farce during a preview of a new track as Green struggled to break through the audience’s amused cheers at the line “with my trousers all the way up to my nipples” and on to the punchline “looking like Simon Cowell”. His big hit Read All About It remained a zeitgeist-bothering cut-above-average anthem, however, and should keep I’m a Celebrity’s producers from his door.

Rating: ***