It is, says James Blunt, the first night of his Greatest Hit tour. The crowd cheers. “That’s ‘hit’ singular,” he adds. “I’m going to play You’re Beautiful 22 times.”
This is, of course, very on brand for James Blunt these days. His vast mid-00s success came with equally vast accompanying opprobrium – perhaps inevitable when an unnecessarily handsome Eton and Sandhurst alumnus shifts 11m copies of his ballad-heavy debut album, with sales driven by Radio 2. But Blunt has proved exceptionally adept at owning his role in popular culture. His witty, self-deprecating tweets are renowned. As Neil Young removed his music from Spotify, Blunt threatened to add more of his, for example, and similar stuff fills the gaps between songs tonight.
