“I know you’ve come here for a party, but I’m not that.”
So says Jake O’Neill before “Won’t Work This Time”. Written for a friend who simply didn’t love his girlfriend anymore, it rather sums up O’Neill’s appealingly left-field approach to country music. There is plenty of fun here, certainly, but he is more interested in the truth underneath it.
By “I’m Your Man”, the trucker hat has been tucked into the back of his jeans and the north-westerner is displaying an easy confidence. There is a song about leaving his hometown of Burscough, naturally called “Leave This Town”, before the theme continues with a cover of Chris Stapleton’s “You Should Probably Leave”. His voice is more than capable of carrying it off.
“Best Kind Of Bad News” concerns the person you know you really shouldn’t go home with, while “Forever And You” proves he can write a proper love song too.
O’Neill is already well known on TikTok thanks to his viral cover of “Gotta Go My Own Way” from High School Musical, but there is far more to him than internet fame. He is an entertaining, likeable chap with entertaining, likeable songs, finishing with “Taste Of Us (One Shot)”, named UK Country Song Of The Year last year and recently enjoying chart success.
The way things are going, he might soon be able to afford air conditioning in his car…..
And what of that party? Well, James Johnston is very much the host with the most.
Bounding onto the stage from the back of a venue packed for the first of two nights here, he begins with his breakthrough hit “Raised Like That” and arrives like a conquering country hero from the other side of the world.
By “Old Country Barn”, you can only conclude that he has total command of his audience. “Small Town” is not merely another song either. Small-town life is at the heart of everything Johnston does. He talks warmly about growing up in a place of around 2,500 people and you cannot help but get swept along with him. A tremendous solo from Dave Webster helps too.
“Takes Me Back” is brand new, yet already sounds like a crowd favourite. With much of the audience made up of women tonight, “Country Boys” is dedicated to one man in blue before Johnston dons his acoustic guitar and effortlessly segues into Avicii’s “Wake Me Up”.
“Country Is For Me” is pretty much his mission statement. He divides the crowd into two and, by now, has the entire room doing exactly what he wants.
There is a simple truth in what he says before a snippet of “Take Me Home, Country Roads”. Music unites us. It doesn’t matter where in the world you come from, he reckons, because we all sing the same songs.
That provides the opportunity for a medley. Jake O’Neill returns for “Wagon Wheel”, while “Don’t Look Back In Anger” gets the inevitable mass singalong. After that comes the absolutely, insanely catchy “Do You Play Any Country?”
It is simply an homage. Then again, the whole show is.
“Where are my ’90s country fans?” Johnston asks before “I Oughta Know Better”, while “Worth Its Weight In Gold” brings a change of pace. Darker and seemingly more personal, it has just a touch of Steve Earle’s “Copperhead Road” about it.
“Got It Good” is as content as country music gets, but the harmonica that ushers in “Blame” brings something more akin to Brothers Osborne. “Keeping It Country”, meanwhile, is as honky-tonk as you could possibly want. Its closing hoedown gives the whole band the chance to show its considerable skill.
“Same Songs” brings us back to the point Johnston made earlier. Rachel Bostock, who has played fiddle beautifully all night, takes the lead vocal for the second verse as the song is undercut with snippets of pop hits, including Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody”.
A chap from the crowd gets his moment during “One More” and makes the most of it, before “Country Song”, written especially for this tour, again demonstrates just how anthemic and uplifting Johnston’s material is.
Then comes “My People”, and when he sings those words, you feel that the audience genuinely are. There is such an easy charm about him that nothing ever appears forced. Even the encore being the one he’d started with.
Over the course of an hour and a quarter, the man who played “Raised Like That” twice proves himself to be exactly what that song suggests: proud of where he came from, humble about where he is and fully aware of how remarkable it is to travel halfway around the world and hear hundreds of people singing his songs.
The whole UK tour is sold out. Somebody shouts “Wembley next!” and Johnston laughs, although you suspect the suggestion might only be half a joke.
How far can he go? Who knows, but there is every reason to suggest that one of country music’s biggest new stars might just be from New South Wales and go by the name of James Johnston.
