Saturday 15/11/08 Kanye West, Santogold @ LG Arena, Birmingham

While all the bravado of recent weeks has been employed to promote his new album, the UK leg of Glow in the Dark is very much the last hurrah for West’s academic album trilogy: ‘The College Dropout’, ‘Late Registration’ and ‘Graduation’. As he alludes to on stage, tonight is his seventh show in seven days - and there are two more to come before Tuesday arrives. One could therefore forgive him for being a little rundown; only, he isn’t. The rapper bounds tirelessly across stage – or his “alien planet” as he likes to call it – as if it’s the opening night.

Glow in the Dark finds the rapper ‘space-wrecked’ on a foreign planet with only Jane – his battered spaceship and, during ‘Gold Digga’, temporary “pussy” – for company. His mission to restore power and escape the foreign realm stutters and starts as the rapper struggles to come to terms with his isolation – and, at one point, a big monster. In the end, and rather fittingly, West is encouraged by a voice from above. “You are the only hope,” the voice says, “You can glow in the dark”.

There aren’t many hip-hop stars would attempt a show on this scale, but then, there aren’t many like Kanye West. Tonight’s opener ‘Good Morning’ and other well-timed tracks such as ‘Champion’ and ‘Flashing Lights’ all promote tremendously uplifting messages of trust, hope and endeavor. And when West sings ‘Hey Mama’ motionlessly from the middle of the stage, one can’t help but think that the timing – almost a year to the day since his mother and mentor, Donda, died – hasn’t been pondered over beforehand.

There are moments when West loses it, of course, but then, so do the crowd. ‘Gold Digger’ and ‘Jesus Walks’ are both bass heavy behemoths, while the emergence of ‘Stronger’, which samples Daft Punk’s familiar ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’, provokes the person next to me to whisper to a friend: “It’s quite loud, isn’t it?” Fittingly, ‘Touch The Sky’ erupts as West powers back into orbit. Mission accomplished.

Or at least you’d think so. After a brief dash off stage, West reappears to give a five minute speech about the origins of the Glow in the Dark tour, during which he declares it “the best show ever” (the audience agree) and thanks everyone from Eric the lighting guy to stage manager Curtis. Speech over, he concludes with ‘American Boy’ – his recent collaboration with Estelle – and three attempts at new single ‘Love Lockdown’. “Stop it, this song is new – I’m going to have to do it again,” West says after the first attempt before fiddling with the vocoder on his belt buckle.

It’s a frustrating ending for both the rapper and the audience; but not enough to overshadow all that came before it. For this crowd, Glow in the Dark was well worth the wait. For West, it's simply been one giant leap onto yet another planet.