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Harry Styles aside, the solo careers of former members of televised singing competition groups rarely capture the public imagination. They usually follow predictable patterns – often a pursuit at a toughened-up R&B sound, complete with at least a track including a cameo by an US hip-hop artist, or a lunge towards mature Radio 2-friendly smooth pop-rock territory – and they typically become a dimly remembered placeholder, the sight and sound of someone enthusiastically passing the years before the inevitable band comeback concerts.

A Unique Journey

This common scenario that makes the idiosyncratic path thus far followed by Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall surprisingly refreshing. She definitely participates in engaging in the typical activities that former talent show band members are wont to do, among them loudly underlining that she's free from the press-managed restrictions of the factory-produced music business – based on tonight’s crowd, the top-selling product on the merchandise stall is a fan emblazoned with the phrase “TINA SAYS YOU’RE A CUNT”, a song line from Gossip, her musical partnership with electronic pair the group Confidence Man – but nevertheless, the music she’s opted to make is pop music with a far more fascinating style than usual.

A Superb Debut

She opened her solo account with last year’s superb her debut single Angel Of My Dreams, a highly unusual, jolting and disjointed mixture of big pop balladry, loud electronic instruments and audio excerpts from Sandie Shaw’s Puppet On A String.

As the set on her first solo tour demonstrates, not every song on her debut album That’s Showbiz, Baby! is quite as interesting as her debut single: Before You Break My Heart is insanely catchy, but it's equally standard-issue disco pop, driven by exactly the Motown musical snippet its title suggests; things are padded out with a interpretation of Madonna’s Frozen that transforms into a musical compilation of nineties club anthems, from 808’s Pacific State to N-Trance’s Set You Free.

More Intriguing Material

However, there exists additional material in the vein of Angel Of My Dreams. The song Headache combines an catchy refrain reminiscent of Abba with verses that offer a borderline atonal style of rhythmic music or are enfolded by deep reverberation. She offers Unconditional to her mum: it has a fabulous melody, early 80s syndrums, and crashing rock guitar combined with clanging industrial drums. IT Girl surprisingly resurrects the sound of early 00s electroclash, or rather the exciting variation of early 00s pop that was strongly inspired by the electroclash genre, while Natural at Disaster starts out like a keyboard-led emotional song before unexpectedly swerving into a malevolent electronic grind.

A Charming Performer

The artist on stage is a immensely likable, delightfully authentic presence: she is, she states at one point, “shaking like a shitting dog”; shouting out her queer audience members, who are here in force, she suggests showing appreciation by adding a official undergarment to the merchandise booth.

Future Possibilities

It could conclude the way such individual artistic pursuits end – the hostility towards former bandmate Jesy Nelson voiced within the song Natural at Disaster patched up, a press conference to declare that the original group are reunited – but the fact that the entire audience appear knowing every lyric as they join in vocally to a record that was released just a month ago causes one to ponder. And should it occur, the final performance of Angel Of My Dreams underlines that Thirlwall’s solo career is unlikely to recede into the domain of the barely recalled interim project.

• Jade plays the O2 Victoria Warehouse in the city of Manchester this evening and is touring the UK through October 23rd.