Gig review: George Ezra at O2 Academy Leeds

It’s been a relatively lower key return for the robust-voiced Hertfordshire songwriter. His new album has made its way to Number One in the charts thus stamping his foot into the lake of talent that Britain seems to possess in male singer/songwriters.

Following on from ‘Wanted on Voyage’, Ezra would have to pull out many stops to create an album to better his first. ‘Staying at Tamara’s’ seems somewhat of a side step, not in a negative way but in a more mature addition to his discography.

It’s at the O2 Academy in Leeds I’ve come along to catch his performance and coincidently the launch of his new album tour.

In support of Ezra is the amazing Lily Moore. Moore is an absolute blistering talent, with all the persona of a shy, sweet girl and the voice of Ella Fitgerald in Amy Winehouse’s accent.

Ezra’s boyish looks and charm will carry on to wooing audiences for a considerable time but how his voice and writing has developed will dispel the myth that this guy is just the same as the rest. His voice is pulled all the way up from his boots and is very unlike his peers, making space on the mantle piece for a guy of this calibre fits neatly in especially with awards seasons coming up.

On stage his smile is a mile wide and seems genuinely made up from the rapturous screams of teens that occupy the first 15 or so rows. Barrelling into his first song, Cassy O, the Ezra charm machine is turned on and obliterates West Yorkshire’s finest.

It’s not a set list of magnitude but when you can add Barcelona, Blame It on Me, Listen to the Man plus new album favourites Paradise and Shotgun and encore with Budapest, I’ll take quality over quantity any day and I reckon 2,500 other people in the venue will agree.

Two albums in, George Ezra has a long way to go before he’s to achieve the status of a few contemporaries in his chosen category but... talent is as talent does and many have already fallen by the way side while his progression continues to sky rocket.