Bluntly, British rocker charmed his Pinoy fans

By Nickie Wang/Manila Standard Today

26 May 2008

As the piano started to play an almost otherworldly figure appeared on stage. We heard a voice humming and as the lights were turned on we saw a gaunt figure in gray suit over a white polo shirt and gray slacks. The crowd gave the man a deafening applause for James Blunt.

It was an exhilarating night, with local and foreign fanatics singing along with Blunt and waving their hands all throughout the British singer-composer James Blunt’s 80-minute concert at the Big Dome last Monday.

With his rich voice and the venue’s superb audio system, the show sounded exactly the same as listening to your stereo playing a copy of his CD. He opened the show with the ballad “Give Me Some Love.” Unfortunately there wasn’t enough crowd to give the singer a thunderous welcome, but the three thousand or so Blunt fans were very appreciative of him and embraced him with warm applauses, especially when he did his previous hit “High.”

He performed some of the hits included in his debut album Back to Bedlam, that earned praises from critics and sold more than 14 million copies worldwide, and some of the tracks from his latest album All The Lost Souls.

Blunt tried to show his humorous side by saying that he got life and death pretty much covered in the charts when he performed “Goodbye My Lover.” He strutted back and forth while performing the song about a “naughty little girl” called Annie.

It seemed that Blunt was not informed that there’s no divorce in the Philippines because when he played the piano and sang “I’ll Take Everything” he said: “This song is a good place to move on. This song is dedicated to anyone here who’s going through a divorce.”

With his guitar clung over his shoulder, he sang the song “No Bravery” in front of a giant video background showing the death and carnage of the war in Kosovo. This song always brings him down the memory lane as he formerly served as an armored reconnaissance officer in the Nato peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

He had every female in the crowd and even the preppy young men running toward the stage holding up their camera phones to record his ultimate single “You’re Beautiful.” This single that stayed at no.1 for four weeks in the US Billboard Top 100 Singles chart gave his name an impeccable luster earning him three Grammy nominations.

Blunt poured out his emotions as he sung “Shine On,” “Out of My Mind,” “Wise Men” and “So Long, Jimmy.” A gong came down after the last song and Blunt banged it to signify the end of the concert. The crowd kept on screaming “more” and after a few minutes Blunt and his band returned and finished off the show with ballads “One of the Brightest Stars” and then “Same Mistake.” To finally end the show, he sang his latest hit, “1973,” where he stood up on the piano and pretended to surf. Then he jumped off the piano and took his digital camera to take the crowd a picture and went off saying ‘Maraming Salamat’ in his British twang.

He indeed staged an impressive show that showcased his panache in his genre. He jumped up and down the platform and shook the hands of his yelling fans when he jumped off the stage.

Those who don’t enjoy his kind of music and barely know his songs and their sappy lyrics, they could have left the venue in the middle of the show.