Ben Howard - Monday 12th November 2012 - O2 Apollo, Manchester

Ben Howard is from Devon, a singer-songwriter who, along with Mumford and Sons, Pete Roe, and such, is lumped in a genre that gets called "nu-folk". He's also compared to John Martyn increasingly often. His album "Every Kingdom" was released last year, and received a Mercury prize nomination in 2012.

Manchester Apollo filled up quick last night with an odd mix come to see him - an audience dominated by girls, but there were a lot of couples there too, and guys in their early twenties and thirties. The old, converted cinema welcomed support act Willy Mason - a country singer, I suppose, he played alone, sometimes with a second guitarist and sang of pick-ups trucks and suicide. He's really great, and I hope he's going do well, especially with Jake Bugg making this kind of thing cool again.

There was the wait, that time of achy backs and wondering if you should have bought a drink whilst the bar was still accessible.

And then the lights went out.

Ben Howard opened with the soft plucking of an electric guitar in the dark, whispers of cymbals. He opened with "Burgh Island", one of the darker, quieter ones from his new EP and it was just stunning. "Diamonds" followed, in which the stage lit up slowly, the entire audience singing along with the chorus.

His band was a beautifully disarranged affair, the drummer played bass at times, guitarist would switch to keyboard and then there was India Bourne, who contributed harmonies, played cello, drums, and bass, moving around throughout the show. It was perfect.

One of the best things about the setlist that night was that one mood would be carried through several songs. Whilst there's still a mixture, two or three lively ones that bring the crowd to dancing and screaming out the lyrics will be followed by a quieter, more solemn moment. His music is sort of a constant stream - several songs drift gracefully into the next, as they do on the album.

Highlights included "Old Pine", a really beautiful moment in which the crowd sang along throwing out full heart and soul, and the incredible energy of "The Wolves". "Esmerelda" is from his new release, "The Burgh Island EP", and brought to the stage it was haunting. With sound and vision, he cast the ocean and the rocks across the venue, and it was so very stunning. "Keep Your Head Up", also, was a moment of such unity for everyone in the room.

Ben finished with "The Fear", one of his biggest singles, and that was a really amazing moment, everyone along the front rows singing and dancing and proving that folk music can and does rock out a lot.

He and the band left the stage. The lights stayed out. The crowd cheered and cheered for an encore.

They returned, to an overwhelming raise in applause and in happiness. He played "Black Flies", one of the more sorrowful tracks from "Every Kingdom", the sort of song you find new things in each time you listen to. The main guitar riff just runs right through your chest, pulses through your veins when it's that loud and atmouspheric around you.

Ben followed this with "Promise", the last song of the night. I love this one because it's not a pop song in the sense that it lacks structure, it lacks choruses and verses, it's just a beautiful train of thoughts set to melody.

"Meet me there,

Bundles of flowers, we'll wait through the hours of cold."

In his lyrics, Ben Howard brings nature alive in a way that I haven't heard anyone else. His music is the woods, and the deepest parts of the sea. Through his show, visuals on a screen at the back painted pictures of travelling along dark roads, crashing waves at seasides, forests. But I think those images were there anyway, with Ben Howard's beautiful words bringing about these settings just through sound. And I think provoking the imagination is one of the most powerful things music can do.