It’s a tough job, being the Man Of The Moment – but, thankfully, Lewis Capaldi seems to be coping.
It helps, of course, that he’s Just Like Us. For a start, like many a 23-year-old man on a Wednesday night, he’s currently got a pint in his hand. He’s also in the middle of telling a nothing-short-of-delightful story about his balls, having previously woven expletive-laden yarns about his bowel movements, his ex-girlfriend, and the pitfalls of living at home with his parents. So far, so normal.
What’s not so regular, however, is that he’s currently on stage at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena. Or that he’ll finish off his latest testicular tale by launching into a song of his called Before You Go. It’s taken from the deluxe edition of an album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, that was the fastest-selling of 2019. The song spent one week at Number One in the UK; the album, nine weeks.
That, dear reader, isn’t something that happens to a normal person.
Yet, despite the success, there’s still something refreshingly human about Capaldi.
The sweary, boozy persona doesn’t appear to be the conceited result of a panel of East London marketing whizzes: instead, it seems like that’s just what he’s like. He’s also the only pop star we can think of who’s prone to belting out an impromptu rendition of The Climb in the middle of a live radio interview; as it goes without saying, there’s nothing more laddish than that.
A series of further #toplad antics over the last twelve months have done little more than to solidify the image of ‘Lewis Capaldi: Absolute Legend’ in the eyes of the nation. (Like the time he popped up, guitar and tinnies in hand, in One on One’s campsite at last year’s Barn on the Farm Festival. Seriously.)
So, when he ‘broke’, it might’ve just been a sign of his sheer humanity that we wondered whether this all might’ve been a bit much for Lewis.
We can’t blame him for struggling slightly: after all, when you find yourself going from playing pubs to packing out arenas in less than three years, you’re probably going to need a bit of time to get used to it. However, we couldn’t quite excuse the fact that Capaldi spent eight minutes – yes, we counted – of his Bristol show last year engaged in a game of air cricket with the crowd that appeared, by the end, to be entertaining nobody but himself.
And yet, as we exited Cardiff having witnessed the seventh show of Lewis’s debut arena tour, we found ourselves thinking that Lewis Capaldi might – just might – have morphed into a Proper Pop Star.
It was – dare we say it? – polished.
He made us laugh, he played the hits, and he didn’t miss a note throughout. When he wasn’t belting out one of his several excellent #sadbangers, he was cracking out the one-liners; and, when he wasn’t doing that, he was pointing out how much of a fan he was of his ex-girlfriend popping up on this year’s Love Island. He even had a B-stage.
By the time he got to Bruises, we knew that he was better than the last time we saw him; and, by the time he wrapped up with Someone You Loved, we realised that this might actually have been a genuinely slick operation.
So, could it be that Lewis Capaldi: Man of the People has morphed into Lewis Capaldi: Proper Pop Star?
Might our favourite everyman have turned into a diva, spurred on by his new-found riches and the prospect of a life spent surrounded by supermodels in the Hollywood hills? Frankly, it’s probably too early to tell. But, based on the show we saw in Cardiff, it does look that he’s already morphed into Lewis Capaldi: More Than Capable Of Putting On A Good Arena Show.
And, in this time of torrid uncertainty and nobody really knowing what’s going on, isn’t that all we can ask for from our Pop Stars?