Imagine getting a phone call on a Saturday night.
‘Psst!’, says a voice on the other end of the line. ‘It’s James. You know, James – James Blunt? Grab your coat, we’re going out. The cab’s outside. Hurry.’
There’s a decent chance that the above situation might well be one of your worst nightmares. After all, you might think that you know exactly how a night out with James Blunt would go.
You’d end up stuck in the corner of your local boozer while he cries into his pint about the latest stranger who caught his eye on the bus ride there. Someone will spot him and cue up Goodbye My Lover on the jukebox. It’ll be awkward, but you can’t just leave him there. That wouldn’t end well; and, inevitably, neither will your night.
(Besides, didn’t he [ALLEGEDLY] cut Ed Sheeran’s face open with a sword at Princess Beatrice’s birthday party? That, surely, is enough of a reason to avoid a night out with James Blunt at all costs).
The thing is, we might’ve agreed with you on all of the above until we went to see him live.
You see, after spending an hour and a half in the company of James Blunt, we’ve found ourselves propelling him to the top of our list of Pop Stars We Want To Go On The Sesh With.
For a start, he’s genuinely funny. Like, have you seen his Twitter feed? It’s like every bitter and jaded self-troll you’ve ever seen has been rolled into one chirpily charming Posh Englishman package.
Oh, and did we mention the music?
Let’s be honest and admit that we’re totally over trying to deny that You’re Beautiful is a total banger. He does, of course, give it an airing tonight in Cardiff; and, it was a total #moment. By the time he throws in Wisemen, 1973, Goodbye My Lover, and Bonfire Heart, even the most reluctant members of the dragged-there-by-their-girlfriends contingent were bellowing along with the same laddish vigor that you’d generally associate with a Dark Fruits-wielding Brexiteer at an Oasis gig.
In fact, if there’s one thing that we learned on that cold night in Cardiff, it’s not that You’re Beautiful still stands up as a timeless classic.
Nor is it – as observed by one slightly flustered lady stood in the vicinity of One on One – that his eyes are precisely the shade of blue that cuts through you like a knife.
No, if there’s one thing we picked up from going to a James Blunt gig, it’s that that he’s actually one of a select few Pop Stars who we reckon would actually be quite good fun on a night out.
Sure, there are people out there who may well have long dismissed him as the musical equivalent of a wet fart; but, from where we were standing that night in Wales, we saw a bloke get up on a stage, make a bunch of people laugh, and belt out some of the best pop-rock-songs-you-won’t-admit-you-actually-quite-like of the last twenty years.
If that isn’t the kind of guy you want around on a night out, then we’re not sure who is.