James Blunt released his album Some Kind Of Trouble back in November 2010. In February 2011, he began a 13 month world tour kicking it off at the Clyde Auditorium (known locally as the Armadillo) in Glasgow.
In the support slot was Brooklyn based group Wakey!Wakey! Amidst the banter (which ranged between talking about crowd size, being invited to join James and talking about the audience in the gallery seats ('saving their money for beer...they're my kind of people') they played a half hour of music, much of which can be found on their album Everything I Wished I'd Said The Last Time I Saw You. Having not heard of them before the show, they were actually in league with James in the style of music.
At 9pm, the main event began. The house lights went down and the intro music began (it was something very old western film sounding) allowing the band to come on stage and start playing So Far Gone. But there was no James. That was because he was running down the aisle, hi-fiving members of the audience and then jumping up on stage to get the show on the road. From So Far Gone it was straight into Dangerous, both of which are taken from current album Some Kind Of Trouble. From the 3rd album, it jumps back to the debut, Back To Bedlam for Billy and Wisemen. Near the end of Wisemen whilst singing the lyrics 'where are you now', James belted out 'Glasgow!'
After this, James welcomed everyone to the show and thanked them for their support. He warned the men that if the women had told them it was going to be a sedate night, they were wrong. He encouraged people to get up and dance if they felt the urge, but said he'd get the miserable stuff out the way first.
Fans were treated to the beautiful ballad Carry You Home, the first song in the set from the album, All The Lost Souls which led to SABS (that's Swaying Arms & Bodies Syndrome). From this, another track from the same album, I'll Take Everything, which James jumping from guitar to the piano. It was this song that seemed to get the crowd in the singalong mode. From one power track to another, it's Out Of My Mind up next.
Now the pace comes down a little as James once more takes to the piano and performs Goodbye My Lover alone, again the crowd in full voice. Still on piano but joined once more by his full band, he performs No Tears. To end a trio of ballads, it's back to the guitar and a performance of High, once more ensuring a singalong from the audience.
Once more James addresses the audience and tells them that it's rumour that the further away from London that you get, the better the singing gets, and that he hopes the audience will prove that. But not right now. Now he wants us to get up and dance to the brilliant Superstar dropping the tempo with Same Mistake. Now James has no instrument to hide behind as he performs If Time Is All I Have, resulting in more cases of SABS.
How do you follow something as beautiful as this? Only with what is probably you're biggest single to date. Yes, it's You're Beautiful with James being almost drowned out on the second verse with the explict line 'F***ing high' being belted out by the Glaswegian crowd. So Long Jimmy follows it up.
The tempo is raised to the rocking I'll Be Your Man during which, James leaves the stage and runs through the crowd, hugging, hi-fiving and kissing members of the audience. Once back on the stage, we encourages people to the stage. Well, don't mind if we do James! At the end of the song, he leaves the stage and everything is dark. Cue the obligatory chanting.
True to form, James returns to the stage and begins to tell how whilst writing the album, he inadvertently wrote a 'celtic' tune, and he'd like to play it for us now 'if that's alright'. Like the crowd are going say no? The song that he is referring to is Into The Dark . This is followed by the first single from the latest album, Stay The Night. Finally, the set comes to a close with the song Turn Me On, Coming to the end of the song, James climbs on top of the piano and pretends to be surfing. Really, health and safety will have you for that!.
Overall it was a great night with a mixture from all the albums so that there was something for everyone. Although James was only on for approx. an hour and half, the 21 strong set made it seem much longer. Here's to that the rest of the tour as is good as the first night.
Photos: © Vhari Lannigan
Wakey! Wakey! releases
CD @ Amazon.co.uk | Downloads @ Amazon.co.uk
CD @ Amazon.com | Downloads @ Amazon.com
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James Blunt Releases
Amazon.co.uk Store | Amazon.com Store
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