His music, and Back To Bedlam specifically, captured a moment in time, bringing back good memories of growing up in the early to mid-2000s.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re Beautiful was often the slow dance at my school discos (and I remember we would lovingly groan and try to sing along when it came on). Wisemen was paired with smells of sausages on the beachfront BBQ, and me, coming up to the deck after a swim without a care in the world.<\/p>\n
This is why I was worried. Would Blunt and his music, after 20 years, still evoke those fuzzy feelings and not come across as outdated, irrelevant, and, dare I say, boring? <\/p>\n
The answer, as I found out, was an emphatic no. <\/p>\n
Not only did Blunt\u2019s Spark Arena sermon play the crowd\u2019s hunger for nostalgia like a fiddle, he also gave us a healthy dose of stand-up humour, self-deprecation, and most importantly, heart.<\/p>\n
James Blunt’s music holds a special place in the hearts of many millennials (and zillenials). Photo \/ Dave Simpson – Getty<\/p>\n
From the moment this jean-wearing ex-soldier took the stage, we were all spellbound followers in the church of James Blunt. Hands were raised, bodies swayed, and Kiwi voices rang as loudly as mine had done in the backseat of the car all those years ago.<\/p>\n
The proceedings fittingly started with a screen montage of the era that we all associate with Blunt: 2000-2010: George Bush, Brad Pitt, Michael Jackson appeared before the man himself sauntered onstage.<\/p>\n
Judging by the massive grin on his face, the preacher was as pleased to see us as we were to see him.<\/p>\n
High kicked things off, and I immediately welled up with happy tears, almost in sync with the 20-something guy with the moustache behind me, who had his arm around his mid-60s dad. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the hit, now it\u2019s all downhill from here,\u201d Blunt joked after we all united for his most famous hymn, You\u2019re Beautiful.<\/p>\n
We weren\u2019t going downhill, the nostalgia train had barely left the station and was about to climb the mountain at full speed. <\/p>\n
Goodbye My Lover, Tears and Rain, So Long, Jimmy – they came fast, we sang, we laughed, we cried, and we told each other about the time and place we\u2019d first heard it or whose iPod you first listened to it on.<\/p>\n
Love him or hate him, Blunt is a natural showman. He didn\u2019t talk much, but when he did, it was either hilarious or poignant. <\/p>\n
James Blunt provided Kiwis with the perfect dose of humour and heart. Photo \/ Dave Simpson – Getty<\/p>\n
Be it the Zillenials and Millennials like me who were \u201cforced to listen to the album by their parents\u201d, the partners dragged along (\u201cI wouldn\u2019t go to a James Blunt concert either,\u201d the star quipped), or the day one fan who \u201chelped him buy his house in Ibiza\u201d – Blunt wanted to make sure everyone got their money\u2019s worth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWere any of you conceived to You\u2019re Beautiful?\u201d he said, as we all let out a unanimous yet well-meaning groan. Chances are that a fair few of us probably were.<\/p>\n
Blunt\u2019s vocals were a topic of debate for a couple walking out after, who noted he missed some of Back To Bedlam\u2019s famous high notes.<\/p>\n
I, for one, loved that his trademark rasp had gotten even raspier with age. The sharp edges only added to his warmth and authenticity. That\u2019s Blunt\u2019s trademark – just the right amount of charm.<\/p>\n
After Back To Bedlam had finished, Blunt presented us with a choice: listen to two hours of his \u201cnew unreleased album\u201d or his radio hits. Joke\u2019s on us, because he \u201cdidn\u2019t have a new album and didn\u2019t need to make one\u201d, so the hits came thick and fast.<\/p>\n
Stay The Night, 1973, Postcards, and OK sounded just like they did on Classic Hits at school pick up and drop off, and there wasn\u2019t a dry eye in the house when Blunt\u2019s emotional Monsters saw cell phones light up the church like remembrance candles.<\/p>\n
James Blunt is still as charming as ever. Photo \/ Dave Simpson – Getty<\/p>\n
Yes, wearing an All Blacks jersey to your encore is something we\u2019ve seen celebs do time and time again, but this felt more authentic, as if Blunt was saying, \u2018I\u2019m with you, through all the battles\u2019.<\/p>\n
And then came the obligatory photo of the crowd \u201cso the wives know we are genuinely here\u201d (a gag that probably got the biggest laugh of the night).<\/p>\n
While some may have gone in expecting a solemn, sit-down show with heavy themes and silence, Blunt gave us the opposite – a multigenerational church-style celebration that will be remembered by families for years to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cTotally emotional, or \u2018Totes Emosh\u2019 as the kids would say,\u201d he posted on social media soon after the gig.<\/p>\n
Yes, I was scared to review him, but now I just want to regale him with tales of my Coromandel car trips over a beer. Like thousands of other Kiwis in the church of Blunt, my nostalgia cup is well and truly full.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald\u2019s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke\u2019s Bay Today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"His music, and Back To Bedlam specifically, captured a moment in time, bringing back good memories of growing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[695,28440,1975,51,3952,1863,69511,31123,69514,69510,69512,11908,156,71,59566,26348,5431,296,14054,69513,5430,130,111,139,2388,69,2887,762,43395,9643,32741,131,19054,30645,9938,9192,1530],"class_list":["post-93206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-album","tag-arena","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-aucklands","tag-back","tag-bedlam","tag-blunt","tag-cathedral","tag-churchlike","tag-crooner","tag-english","tag-entertainment","tag-from","tag-generational","tag-generations","tag-hageman","tag-into","tag-james","tag-joyous","tag-mitchell","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nostalgia","tag-nz","tag-release","tag-review","tag-smash","tag-spark","tag-spectacle","tag-than","tag-turned","tag-unexpected","tag-united","tag-writes","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}