More about: Paolo Nutini

It’s been a long eight years for Paolo Nutini fans. Since releasing Caustic Love in 2014, fans have been clamouring for something new for a long time, and it was only after a wait of nearly a decade that they got their long-awaited reward. Last Night In the Bittersweet is a lengthy record with intimate and experimental songwriting from the Paisley legend, an album that deserves a mighty room to showcase itself in. So the scene is set: a two night residency at London’s monolithic Alexandra Palace, a sold out room full of fans new and old, and an artist with a new lease of creativity. 

On this first night, we are treated to an opening set from London indie darlings The Big Moon. Having recently released their third album, and their first EVER Top 10 charter, Here Is Everything, the short set feels like a teaser for the album, allowing the tracks to flourish in a huge room. Addressing the “sea of heads” before them, Jules Jackson and Celia Archer treat the crowd like new friends, with cheeky asides about their hair getting caught up in their guitar (“you’re shedding your winter coat!” Archer announces to Jackson). As a fan of the band, I am very used to seeing them in smaller rooms, so hearing songs like ‘Wide Eyes’, ‘Trouble’ and the joyous optimism of ‘Your Light’ fill the spaces of Ally Pally feels like a shift in gear, like these songs were always meant to be played in rooms like this. They plug their upcoming show at the Roundhouse, their biggest headline show to date, at the end, and there is absolutely no doubt that many of the audience will be in attendance. 

Darkness suddenly swamps the arena. A screen plays a backdrop of static, and a band start playing an ambient noisy soundscape. Paolo Nutini emerges with bushy brown hair, a plaid shirt & jeans combo, and a voice more powerful than any I’ve heard in recent memory. His unassuming and humble on-stage persona is at odds with the performance he gives tonight on the mic, which can range from delicate and vulnerable, to sensuous and alluring, all the way to fierce and howling in a matter of minutes. Tonight, Paolo and his band play a set that is over two hours long, he barely drinks any water on stage (instead choosing to sip from a pint of beer on his keyboard) and manages to captivate the entire room with his vocal presence. Impressive is an understatement.

Whilst people may be here for The Greatest Hits, it is the new songs that get some of the most love from the crowd. ‘Acid Eyes’ provokes a huge singalong, ‘Take Me Take Mine’ gets the phone torches out and swaying along, and ‘Through the Echoes’ sees couples in the crowd lovingly embracing to the music. “I want love, I want love” Paolo sings on ‘Radio’, and it is very clear from the deafening applause tonight that he has it. He seems reserved at first, saying few words, but after an acoustic rendition of 2009 hit ‘Coming Up Easy’, the love is reciprocated, as he bounds down and up the stage taking the atmosphere in; this is a night none of us are forgetting in a hurry. 

“This means absolutely everything to me, that you all showed up”

Songs from Last Night in the Bittersweet take the priority in the setlist, and older tunes are slotted in whenever appropriate. And here is where the magic happens- many of the standards from Paolo’s back catalogue are given complete overhauls, with new arrangements giving them a reinvigorated shot of vitality. Gone is the skiffle twee of ‘Pencil Full of Lead’, and here to stay is a salacious new rendition of it where the lyrics are given room to breathe and a funky organ carries the hook. ‘Let Me Down Easy’ transforms from a soul number into a dark synthpop number that wouldn’t be out of place on a Depeche Mode album. My favourite of the lot is the only outing from These Streets, which is a glam rock version of Jenny Don’t Be Hasty, a swaggering and slick new interpretation of an old classic. Whilst some of the more traditionalist fans may have been upset by this, crying out “sacrilege”, I thought it was a move of genius; it brings these songs into a new context and makes them feel much more fresh than they did ten years ago. Some of the tracks stay the same though, such as the anthemic ‘Candy’ and ‘Cherry Blossom’, the latter of which sees the crowd submerged by bubbles, a beautiful sight. 

“This means absolutely everything to me, that you all showed up” Paolo tells the crowd as the set draws to a close. You can see it on his face, after nearly a decade of inactivity, the fact that the response to his return has been so monumentally positive. It is more than requited by the crowd, who take time during changeovers between songs to tell (or shout at) Paolo how much they love him. The climactic point of the set comes during perhaps his finest song, ‘Iron Sky’, an apocalyptic track that is both mournful and revolutionary in nature. “Fuck those silly bastards” Paolo shouts as we let the words to the song sink in, words that may have been written a long time, but have only grown in relevance. People beside me chant along to the Charlie Chaplin sample in the middle, and it's impossible not to get chills. During ‘Shine A Light’, his band take one final bow, and we think that it is time to go home. Yet Paolo remains on stage for one final rendition of ‘Abigail’.

It’s been two hours, but if he made the impromptu decision to do two more hours alone with his guitar, it would have been more than fine with everybody here. Paolo Nutini’s return to the music world has been one of the highlights of 2022, and if you thought he was going to be back in hiding after this tour wraps up, vans outside the venue advertising an upcoming headline slot at Latitude Festival 2023 prove otherwise. Welcome back Paolo, we all missed you and we all love you. 

See the view from the pit, captured by Niamh Louise:

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More about: Paolo Nutini