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John Newman landing a debut number one single at the weekend ensured that the sold out show at The Lexington was never going to be a quiet affair. For a moment I thought I had ended up in a Yorkshire local due to the amount of support that had seemingly travelled down to support the local lad done good.
The crowd were emphatic even before John took to the stage on a musical interlude, and once there, he commanded it like a season professional. Opening his set with ‘Try’, John proves that vocally he is someone about to make a big impact. His energy set the pace for the rest of his set.
Seemingly exploding onto the mainstream conscious over the last few months, the anticipation around his debut album is nearing fever pitch. A few songs in and ‘Cheating’ was declared as his (soon to be?) second single, and it was even better than his first. The stage was hardly big enough to contain John and his band, as he fully threw himself around the stage with a magnetic contagious energy which the crowd became a part of.
Although not a long set, it was exhausting just watching him. It would seem that baby-faced Newman is lucky to have found his voice and also such a complementary style so early on. He closed the show, thanking those who helped him get to number one, before playing ‘Love Me Again’ to a now hot and sweaty crowd, crammed into the top floor of the Lexington, to deafening applause and cheers for an encore.
All in all, we can expect great things from John Newman, and with a voice as incredible and different as his, the stage is set to get much bigger from here on out.
