This is a rare chance to see soulful pop singer Rhianna in an intimate venue.

After this gig, she heads off on tour with Beverly Knight and returns to the Dome Concert Hall on Friday, December 13.

Rhianna has caused a bit of a stir in today's climate of manufactured music. She is a modern pop star with a stunning voice who works a futuristic, retro chic that is distinctly her own.

Cool like Sade lost in Shoreditch, Rhianna name-checks Kate Bush, Nelly Furtado and Patti Smith as inspirations.

She says: "I am influenced by a lot of things, a lot of old Motown stuff - The Supremes, Marvin Gaye.

"My older brother Leigh was into a lot of hip-hop and my sister was really into Prince and Kate Bush so I got into that, too."

Raised in Leeds, Rhianna Kenny enjoyed school despite getting a hard time.

That is typical of the upbeat spin she puts on life. She says: "My hair was a bit weird, I had a weird name, I looked weird.

"I'm of mixed race and there were no other black or mixed-race kids where I lived," she says.

"I had a little body and big hair. I was always singing in school. Everyone referred to me as 'her with the funny name and the big hair, who sings'."

She got the last laugh. At 16 years old, she was singing backing vocals on stage at the Shepherd's Bush Empire for her brother Leigh's group LSK - she gave up five A Levels to join the tour - then rushed back to Leeds to rehearse the narrator's role in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

At weekends, she'd be crowd-surfing at Pogues or Saw Doctors' gigs with her dad. "You wear a vest and get soaked in beer and lose your shoes," she grins.

The first gig he took her to was Squeeze when she was nine. "My dad's cool," she grins. She's taking him to see The Strokes next.

Leigh - a typically protective older brother - is 31 and co-wrote the album with her. "He doesn't write songs about fluff or thin air, there's substance to them," she says.

Rhianna, who can't wait to start her second album, has some unique writing tricks of her own - if she has no pen, she will send herself a text message or phone home and sing into the answering machine.

"Top tip for you there," she laughs.

Doors open 8pm. Tickets are £4. For more information, call 020 8600 2320.