Music / Gigs
Review – Paolo Nutini, Lloyds Amphitheatre
There could be a few babies called Paolo being born across the Bristol area in nine months’ time.
Scottish singer Paolo Nutini makes just the kind of music that babies can be made by when his album is put on the record player at home.
Performing live, he makes women go all of a quiver. Knees were definitely weakened. And when he looked one way and flashed his teeth, every woman in the crowd swore he was looking at and singing to them and only them.
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Tanned, with a mop of unruly hair, lips like Jagger and shirt unbuttoned to the navel, there was no mistaking the 27-year-old Nutini for the global star that he is today.
The Paisley native was playing the biggest one-off concert seen in Bristol for a decade and on Wednesday night there was a festival atmosphere in the Lloyds Amphitheatre.
The boogie-pop of the Nutini of old is long gone, after a three-year hiatus replaced by meaningful blues and soul.
Opening song Scream (Funk My Life Up) was a statement of intent from a singer near the top of his game.
He finished one song on his knees, and during a reworked version of Pencil Full of Lead – like Amy Winehouse produced by Mark Ronson at his most brassy – he climbed down into photographers pit for a singalong with the front row.
Iron Sky begins like Dummy-era Portishead. Nutini starts on the piano and we could be in a smoky bar, the Bristol night sky darkening for extra good measure.
With its inclusion of a speech by Charlie Chaplin from The Great Dictator, Iron Sky could also be an anthem for the Scottish Yes campaign.
The first encore of Jenny Don’t Be Hasty segues into a few lines of New Shoes alongside clashing guitars, followed by another old favourite Candy.
Nutini then leaves until returning for a second time with a click of his heels, spotlit on stage without his fine support band for Last Request.
But he is mostly on backing duties as the sell-out 5,000-crowd sing every word before heading off back home to make babies and Nutini heads off to Glastonbury no doubt to make the ladies of Worthy Farm also go weak at the knees.
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