Ben Howard, O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire - review

Yesterday was an auspicious one for the 23-year-old: his debut album, Every Kingdom, went gold and the first of two Shepherd's Bush Empire sellouts was the biggest headline show of his life. "I'm a little nervous," the man of few words mumbled.

Like an Ed Sheeran without the dance inflections and paranoia, Howard is a genuine people's choice and his clued-in audience were deathly silent during the quiet parts and suitably raucous where the pace quickened, notably during The Wolves where Howard and his multi-tasking backers - singing, drumming, guitar-playing cellist India Bourne and bass-playing drummer Chris Bond - provided a frenzied backdrop to almost the entire building chanting "love, love, love". As uplift goes, we were at Wonderbra levels.

Very much in the tradition of meandering, almost rustic, slightly off-kilter singer-songwriters such as John Martyn, Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison and most of all Dave Matthews, the more chances Howard took, the more he succeeded, whether he was perched on a stool slapping his guitar on Depth Over Distance or losing himself in the headspinning swirl of Old Pine.

As a result the conventional balladeering of Everything and the sole solo moment Promise fell flat, but Diamonds and Keep Your Head Up galloped like Red Rum at Aintree. Better still, The Fear and Black Flies spiralled in beguiling circles, nodding in roughly equal parts to Stravinsky, Talk Talk and your local barn dance.

Gauche between songs, Howard may yet fall by the wayside like fellow left-of-centre singer-songwriters Stephen Fretwell and Tom McRae, but right now there's nothing but hope ahead: a sombre new song Oats In The Water boded well; his American launch is imminent and already two Brixton Academy nights are booked in November.

Whatever happens, he'll always have last night to cherish.

Ben Howard plays O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire tonight, sold out

Ben Howard
O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire
Shepherd's Bush Green, W12 8TT