George Ezra review: Upbeat Ezra wraps arena in a cuddly cardigan with his big-hearted balladry

Playing the joker: George Ezra charmed with his witty asides
ANGELA LUBRANO
Rick Pearson16 November 2018

In the cool stakes, he ranks somewhere alongside Coldplay and cardigans. But who cares? Certainly not George Ezra, nor the 12,000 fans that packed the SSE Arena last night.

Ezra’s debut, Wanted On Voyage, went four times platinum, spawned the mega-hit Budapest and spent a whopping 122 weeks in the charts.

Its follow-up, Staying At Tamara’s, also went to number one, and with Paolo Nutini nowhere to be seen, the 25-year-old has become the obvious choice for mums and dads who like their pop with a little bit of earthy realness.

With the purse strings loosened to allow for a six-piece backing band, any fear that Ezra’s balladry might be swamped by this cavernous space were allayed early on.

What’s more, his booming baritone is custom-built for the arenas. Set opener Don’t Matter Now was a lively mix of funk guitar and his attention-all-shipping vocals.

As you might expect from someone who hosts his own podcast, Ezra was a confident and funny orator. “These songs are all about escaping,” he said. “So if you’ve been dragged here, you’ll understand the sentiment.”

There were times during the set when escape did, indeed, seem like the only sensible option. Barcelona continued his habit of naming songs after major European cities, but the generic ballad could have been written Rotterdam or anywhere, Liverpool or Rome.

He was best at his most upbeat. Listen To The Man bounded along on off-beat rhythms, Paradise was as euphoric as its title and Blame It On Me had a vibrant, Mumfordsy skip.

Ezra’s line on Pretty Shining People, “I fear I’m on an island in an ocean full of change” felt particularly apt against the backdrop of the Brexit fiasco.

But this wasn’t a night of caustic political commentary. It was one of big-hearted balladry — and Ezra proved he does it much better than most.

Things to do in November in London

1/12

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in