“Hello Leeds!” were two of about seven words softly squeaked by rootsy melodic folkster Ben Howard during his visit to the O2 Academy.

After a slow and intense opener, in the form of ‘Burgh Island’, the title track from his upcoming EP, he sat his guitar face-up on his lap and set to using his guitar as a drum, whilst juggling chords, harmonics, lead work and vocals simultaneously for ‘Under The Same Sun’.

The night’s set cornered around four friends, all multi-instrumentalists (the drummer even plays drums and bass at the same time), gliding through a tidally upbeat and downbeat set. The show consisted of a mix of songs from Howard’s debut album, Every Kingdom, and his newly written songs, of which, ‘Esmerelda’, stood testament to his knack for combining riveting guitar-work with soft and memorable melodies.

There were moments where your pissed-up bloke who’d heard a song or two on Radio 1 shouted out “Call Me Maybe!” but thankfully, Howard swam through his songs with the passion of somebody who genuinely meant his words. During ‘The Wolves’, he and the audience screamed “Love Love Love!” back and forth before he settled back into his groove, out of breath and beaming: “We lost faith in the arms of love!”.‘Keep Your Head Up’ stood out as a fan-favourite, and quite rightly so. You’d do well to not crack a smile at that track. Finally ‘Promise’ was a beautiful end to a beautiful set.

8/10

Words  – Luke Bird
Photo: Abigail Hoekstra