She may have taken an interminably long time to get on stage but Laura Marling was spellbinding when she did.

Aged only 18, the singer-songwriter received a Mercury nomination this year for her stunning debut Alas, I Cannot Swim. The selection of literate ballads also earned Marling comparisons with Joni Mitchell — another artist who balanced a cherubic appearance with a wise old heart.
Marling was joined on the night by an all-male band on drums, bass, guitar and keyboards. Their boisterous accompaniment gave added oomph to Marling’s strange and haunting songs. Ghosts and You’re No God were lifted by close harmonies and the light hiss of Dave Sanderson’s snare.

Elsewhere, the marching beat of Crawled Out Of The Sea had the crowd singing as one. They’ll soon be singing the new songs, too, many of which Marling aired here. One of the new tracks, possibly called Rambling Man, had Marling firmly in Joni Mitchell territory with its bittersweet lyrics and jangly open tuning.

Marling wasn’t afraid to experiment either. Two new songs were performed solo on banjo. “I’ve yet to buy a strap, it’s on my to-do list,” she joked, before sitting down on a stool to play the instrument.

She was up again for My Manic and I, a dark waltz built on plucked guitar and rising strings. Complete with the opening lines, “He wants to die in a lake in Geneva/The mountains can cover the shape of his nose” and building to the refrain, “I can’t control you/I don’t know you well/These are the reasons I think that you’re ill”, Marling sounded both haunting and haunted.
She was smiling by the end, however, as the crowd cheered an encore of Alas, I Cannot Swim. “This has been a weird gig,” she grinned. It was a wonderful one, too.