Photo: Ellen Offredy
Craig David cuts a resplendent figure at the O2 Arena tonight. Dressed head to toe in dazzling white, his slow emergence on stage is greeted with the kind of fanaticism you might expect from an artist who has been through his time in the wilderness before making a messianic return to one of the country's biggest stages.
The tour is nominally to promote 2016 album Following My Intuition, but in truth there is so much going on that element is quickly forgotten. Some tracks to get an airing, 'Louder Than Words' being an early set highlight, but inevitably the older material steals the show.
'Fill Me In', with its insistent acoustic guitar lick and lyrics ever so politely suggesting a partner may have been unfaithful, is greeted with joyous hysteria, before the more introspective 'Rise And Fall' from 2003 gives proceedings a little more depth. The latter song is especially affecting as David prefaces it by saying how tough it had been dropping out of the public consciousness after bursting onto the scene only four years earlier, and how he optimistically predicted his return to the big time as a sort of catharsis. It's all the sweeter then that it has come true.
'7 Days' closes the main set after just over an hour, with a predictably maniacal fans' reaction sweeping David and the band off stage before the next part of the show. For this, David revives his successful TS5 show that he plugged around the festival circuit last summer. It's a DJ set with rapping and singing overdubs - starting with 'Re-Re Wind' and taking in everything from 'No Scrubs' to 'Jump Around'. It's good fun and the crown lap it up - but at 45 minutes it does test some people's patience as the instruments stand on the stage unloved and the excellent band presumably sit backstage twiddling their thumbs.
When they do finally reappear it's for David's now well-known party piece of a 'Fill Me In' redux hammered together with Justin Bieber's 'Where Are You Now?'. It's a neat trick, complete with speed rapping and plenty of musical flourishes, and gets a deservedly riotous reception from the floor.
Tonight's show is very well put together and received and you have to applaud any artist who can still sell out the O2 Arena 18 years after coming onto the scene. The demographic of the audience is largely a similar mid-30s range to the singer himself, occasionally lending an inescapable air of nostalgia to proceedings.
There's certainly no danger of new ground being broken here tonight. But that's really not the point. It's a shame that he didn't have enough faith in his less-known tracks to cut down his TS5 set a bit and showcase some of his own material, but when you've sold out the O2 I guess you can do what you want. That Craig David gets to do this for two nights this weekend is a testament to the enduring popularity of his music, which is something nobody can take away.
Find tickets to Craig David's remaining shows here
Craig David 2017 UK Tour Dates:
28 March Nottingham - Motorpoint Arena
29 March Newcastle - Metro Radio Arena
31 March Leeds - First Direct Arena
01 April Manchester - Arena
03 April Glasgow - SSE Hydro Arena
04 April Aberdeen - GE Oil & Gas Arena
07 April Dublin - 3 Arena
08 April Coventry - Ricoh Arena
09 April London - SSE Arena Wembley
