CityLife

Gig review - Paolo Nutini – Manchester Apollo Star rating – 7/10 This gig was a party – and that was just the band on stage. Paolo Nutini stormed through a set lasting one and three quarter hours, and didn’t seem to want to stop even then. He played all his hits – Jenny Don’t Be Hasty; New Shoes; Last Request; Coming Up Easy; and the amazing latest single Candy. His voice soared above the crowd, most of whom joined in with every note, in his distinctive and very attractive singing style. He is as comfortable doing the stripped down ballads with just a guitar for accompaniment, as the big band numbers that really got the crowd dancing. His many membered backing band, The Vipers, were a class act, including a great brass section. And they even did a cover of "Alone Again Or", originally recorded by the 60’s psychedelic folk rock band Love. He is still a relatively young song writer and singer, and if his two albums so far are anything to judge by, he shows signs of having much more to come. But for now it was enough to just savour the party, savour his extremely versatile voice, and savour the music.

Ray Lamontagne is famously shy on stage, and so was true to form tonight. But honestly, who needs spoken words when he sings so beautifully, and with searing honesty, about his passions and pain (but mostly his pain). His set tonight opened with ‘Empty’, one of the strongest tracks from his second and arguably his best album, ‘When the Sun Turns Black’, and he worked his way through highlights from all three albums. There was a moment of bizarreness when a woman jumped onto the stage in a very short dress, and was quickly escorted off it. When an audience member asked him if he had enjoyed that, Ray answered ‘Not particularly no’ – which I thought was a fair enough reply under the circumstances. He did helpfully inform us that ‘Hey Me, Hey Mamma’ was about Nebraska. As he said, we would not have known that ‘from the melody, the lyrics or the title’ so he thought he would tell us. Again, fair enough. I am quite happy for him to let his wonderful singing voice and powerful and soul stripped bare lyrics do the talking for him. And as usual he was generous and supportive to his two support acts Ethan Johns (the producer of all his albums); and the very promising Josh Ritter; who both joined him on ‘Hey Me, Hey Mamma’. He did some of more rocky numbers, such as ‘Three More Days’ and ‘Meg White’, but it his soulful ballads that shine out. We were treated to ‘Trouble’, ‘Shelter’, ‘Hold Me in Your Arms’, and ‘Let it be Me’ to name but a few. He finished his encore with a beautiful rendition of the haunting and wonderful ‘Jolene’. He still may not know what love means but he sure can sing about it.