Now, I don't like surprises as a rule, but I always break that rule when the surprises are nice. And winning tickets to things is particularly nice. Thanks to the lovely people at Diet Coke I got to go and see Paulo Nutini as part of the iTunes festival at The Roundhouse in Camden. For free. Awesome.
The Roundhouse is host to 31 nights of free musical entertainment (well, free if you can get hold of a ticket), and there is a really mixed bag of artists performing from the retro (a-ha and Simple Minds) through the big names (Oasis and Kanye West) to the new kids on the block (metephorically speaking, unfortunately NKOTB aren't making an appearance...).
So I won't spend too much time on the support acts. Milow was up first and is apparently from Belgium, which always earns brownie points from me. There were obviously some fans in the house - according to the intro he's very big in France - and he seems very nice. I'd classify his music as Jack Johnson-esque and you can check out his myspace here. Next up was Marina and The Diamonds, who again seemed lovely until she started signing. Least said soonest mended...not my kind of thing.
Finally, after we had seen him give quite possibly the least helpful interview in the world ever to Fearne Cotton, Paulo Nutini took to the stage. I have it from a reliable source that he only sings when he's tanked up and I can quite believe it He sings as if he were a 70 year old drunken pub singer and the only thing he has to hold him up is the mic stand. It doesn't make for the best visual attraction as he spent much of the set hunched over, eyes closed, forcing the music out of himself, but he did sound pretty good.
I prefer his first album to his new material - his current single, Candy, does nothing for me - but I think I'm alone in that one as it's been hugely successful. He opened with New Shoes,which is my favourite and the reason I bought his first album, and opened the encore with a great sing along of Last Request. A really enjoyable evening, so thank you Paulo!
You can download the live EP of Paulo Nutini's performance at the iTunes Festival now
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