Gig Review: James Blunt At Manchester Apollo

The former army captain always seemed to me to be a bit insipid on record but in a live context he comes into his own.

The five trucks parked outside the Apollo show the size of his current European tour that is playing in large arenas from Paris to Prague. His music though is suited to smaller venues rather than arenas. The majority of the audience tonight are couples.

The theme of his current tour is themed around his current album, Moon Landing. Blunt and his band appear on stage all wearing astronaut jumpsuits (complete with a Union Jack Flag on the arm) as the band perform Face the Sun with Blunt sitting playing his piano like his life depended on it.

Credit must go to his sound engineer on this tour: the sound was perfect and you could hear everything.

Carry You Home soon has the audience up on their feet, whilst on Miss America Blunt dedicated the track to Whitney Houston. When you hear all these songs back to back you realise how many hits he has had. At one point during the show he even decides to go walkabout in the audience.

He leaves his best tracks to the end of the gig as he sings You're Beautiful, Bonfire Heart and 1973 to the appreciative audience.

His songs might be lyrically miserable but tonight's gig was highly enjoyable.