James Blunt, Glasgow review: 'too much information'

Just like that year when Alice Cooper landed in Glasgow on Halloween, the stars have aligned (if you are so inclined) for James Blunt to serenade the city on Valentine's Day - and then somewhat puncture any romantic ambience by asking the capacity crowd “who was conceived to You're Beautiful?” before offering TMI on his own make-out relationship to the song.

It was been 20 years since its reedy, mawkish strains propelled the ex-soldier to troubadour ubiquity – time to mark its parent album, Back to Bedlam, with an end-to-end re-run, meaning Blunt could dispense with the breakthrough ballad early in the set.

“It's all downhill from here,” he quipped, having already failed to kickstart an incongruous Mexican wave to opening track High, co-written with Deacon Blue frontman Ricky Ross. There were cheers for the chiming Wisemen and the MOR onslaught continued with Goodbye My Lover, with the audience barely needing the nod to wallow along to the chorus.

The remaining six non-singles were rescued from the mists of time. The marginally rockier Out of My Mind was accompanied by strange psychedelic visuals, while So Long, Jimmy hinted at the influence of Elton John, an early supporter of his music, with some Doorsy keyboards and Pink Floyd-style guitar break for good measure.

No Bravery, inspired by his peacekeeping experiences in Kosovo, still packed a powerful punch but Blunt was itching to disengage from the piano and have fun with the remainder of the set, from ukulele ditty Postcards to chirpy overture Stay the Night.

His rendition of Slade’s Coz I Luv You was embellished with a dub reggae breakdown from his band, during which Blunt went for an unsupervised jog round the venue and his deep house diversion OK even brought the party, before he unleashed his other big ballad, Monsters, then encored with “happy song” Bonfire Heart and the equally chipper 1973.

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