When James Arthur asks the audience if there are any Mums in the audience tonight, even he seems surprised at the amount of screams. “Any Grandmas?” he asks, which gets a loud enough cheer, while a few Dads give a half-arsed groan when they’re asked. “Sorry you got dragged here,” he jokes, before impersonating the Dads in the crowd: “James Arthur? That prick…” Following his rise to fame through The X Factor (which he won in 2012, in case you weren’t on the planet) his following clearly reflects the show’s audience; a mixed bag of young couples, younger kids, self-confessed MILFs and self-contained emos. While variety is the spice of life, you could argue that the plate put in front of Arthur is hugely over seasoned, and a difficult one to balance out.
Clearly, they’ve all paid (or been dragged) to see him live, and the majority have the album so they know what they’re expecting. Last year’s debut offered a mostly impressive collection of soul influenced pop/rock tracks, kicking off (as tonight’s show did) with the brassy You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You. Despite the fact that it was a no. 2 hit – and that the crowd are on their feet – Arthur (who’s never been Mr. Showbiz) cuts a nervous figure, strolling around the stage, looking back at his band for support. Is it an after effect of the recent Twitter storm (James was accused of being homophobic following the language used in a rap battle), that saw taking time off his promo schedule due to exhaustion?
There’s a smooth merge into Blackstreet’s No Diggity during a funked-up Lie Down, which is lost on the MILFs and their kids, but the crowd are united following an acoustic section, by which point Arthur seems to have shaken off the nerves. Introducing a keyboard-accompanied Recovery, he’s honest with the crowd and doesn’t shy away from the reasons it wasn’t played on the radio, but is sure to state, “I love everybody,” which sounds completely genuine. While this, and the slowed down cover of Let’s Get It On – a favourite from his time on The X Factor, do highlight his vocal ability, they are both tracks which could have picked the audience up in-between the album tracks that aren’t all as strong as the singles. Recovery in particular is a faultlessly produced track on the album, and could have provided the moment of the show in its original state.
There is the odd Tom Jones moment (knickers being thrown at him) which Arthur handles in a way you imagine Sir Tom never did (…he sniffs), but it goes to prove that, while he is The X Factor’s boy least likely to, there are the makings of a showman there. He’s clear to state the reason we’ve been brought together tonight (“We’re a full band… no gimmicks… Sit down if you want, enjoy the show…”) but does demand the odd “loudest scream” competition that a 1D crowd might be more used to. He even has the crowd moving their hands “8-mile style” for Flyin’, a fully-fledged rap track.
There are certainly the makings of a decent artist here, backed by further album tracks Roses (a ballad co-written with Emeli Sandé),the hip-pop-rock of Emergency and new single Get Down (“They’ll play it on the radio… hopefully”), which might only come to light once a clear audience has been targeted. As pleasantly mellow as Smoke Clouds is, “trading blue for green,” might confuse fans at the very younger and older ends of the scale (“He’s swapping favourite colours!”/”He’s doing a Picasso…”). It’s far too easy to dismiss artists who come from TV shows or to jump on the bandwagon of an overblown media storm without listening to the music, but there’s no denying Arthur’s voice, or his ability to write (and perform when he’s on form) a decent pop song. Not perfect, but promising. 3/5
Dan Bull
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