Despite being a graduate of one of the biggest pop bands in the world, before splitting off to become a star in his own right, Harry Styles is remarkably still yet to play a huge stadium show in London. Instead, he’s stuck largely to comically tiny venues so far – Hammersmith Apollo, Electric Ballroom, and last night, Brixton Academy – and as the Once Directioner brought Harry’s House to a room far too small to contain him, the anticipation was palpable long before stage-time. “Good evening,” Styles announced as he took to the stage. “My name is Harry.”
The one off show – billed as One Night Only in London, even though he returns in June for two solo dates at the more appropriately sized Wembley Stadium, as well as an appearance at the Capital Summertime Ball – saw the singer showcasing his third solo record true to tracklist, and despite being out there for less than a week, the crowd roared along to every single cut like it was a fully ingrained classic.
Styles often looked on, slightly gobsmacked, as the audience provided the perfectly-timed campy scats that punctuate album opener Music For a Sushi Restaurant, and belted out the particularly saucy one-liners from Cinema with fervour. “I never thought I would say ‘Cocaine, side-boob, choke her with a sea view’ with my mother in the audience!” he pondered at one point, revisiting some choice lyrics from Keep Driving.
Elsewhere, in the extended encore, Styles deviated from the new record to revisit the innuendo-riddled Watermelon Sugar, from 2019’s Fine Line. “If you ever find yourself in a position where you feel confused or scared… remember, you can always sing along to a song about oral sex”.
Styles has previously admitted that he used to feel suffocated by so-called cleanliness contract clauses imposed on him as a fresh-faced boy-band member, telling Better Homes and Gardens that he cried upon discovering his solo career wouldn’t be bound by the same strict expectations.
At Brixton Academy he seemed completely liberated as an artist, too – playing the kind of venue his rocket-fuelled rise to fame once prevented him from ever headlining, hurling water into the front row, and goofily letting loose during a joyful throwback rendition of One Direction’s enormous hit What Makes You Beautiful.
Though Styles has always been a playful performer, he seemed to have more room than ever to let that side shine; at one point, he even burst into a short, grinning rendition of 22 – by his ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift – for a fan in the front row celebrating a birthday. Ahead of his gigantic stadium shows across the UK next month, it was a novel and slightly surreal experience to witness Styles commanding such an intimate setting – and it proved a neat fit for the warm, exploratory songs that line the walls of Harry’s House.
