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James Blunt
Rod Laver Arena
James Blunt makes his entrance to the stage by running out encouraging everyone in the seated audience to stand, as he opens with ‘ Beside You’.
He quickly engages the audience by gesturing everyone to stand up. Having been thoroughly entertained by the opening act Pierce Brothers, everyone is in the mood to dance.
He works his way through the hits “ Wise Men” and “ Carry Me Home” and the crowd is enthralled.
Pausing at his piano for a moment he speaks about his best best friend Carrie Fischer ( Princess Leia) who he lived with while recording his first album. He describes her as a beautiful but deeply troubled individual and reminisces about how absolutely crazy her house was- with chandeliers in the garden and a piano in the bathroom that played itself. ‘ Dark Thought’ is an incredibly touching song filled with regret and sadness as a black and white image of James with Carrie flashes up on the screen behind him.
Just before the song ‘ High’ James jokes that most of the men in the audience are probably at the show with a woman, and it’s women that have kept his career going. He encourages the women to sing along but informs the men that as he is able to sing so high, and that he is in fact a dolphin ( and thus his voice is too high for men to hear) they can sit this one out and enjoy three minutes of silence. He does however encourage the audience to start a Mexican wave and instructs a lone audience member to start the wave each time he sings the word “ High”. It’s a great success and the audience absolutely loves participating.
Heading towards the end of the show, James has been incredibly engaging, entertaining and extremely funny. For a guy whose whole career is hinged on sad songs, he certainly knows how to entertain a crowd. He is self effacing at times, humble at others, and comes across as a wonderful human.
It’s fair to say that James Blunt writes some pretty sad songs, and one would think that in doing so the audience gathered together tonight would be mostly women that have come along to witness the troubadour sing his heart out. Looking around the audience though there is fairly good representation from the men, proving sad songs really are for everyone.
Words by Amanda Lee Starkey
Behind the lens Rena Tan
