Lewis Capaldi had quite the meteoric rise pre-COVID, scoring multiple number-one singles and a number-one album that sold so well, he’s playing a sold-out UK arena tour before his second album has even released: his “agent’s fault”, according to the singer-songwriter onstage. It includes Lewis Capaldi’s second stop in Cardiff in less than seven months; last time, he was at the Castle, and tonight he’s playing a sold-out arena.

Coming onstage at Cardiff International Arena to what sounds like a new track, possibly the title track to forthcoming second album Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent, a backing band appear on pedestals, CAERDYDD flashes up on the box screen above the stage and Capaldi breaks into recent number one Forget Me, which sees confetti fire over the crowd – not for the last time tonight – as it reaches its final chorus. After Forever, the band disappears and we’re treated to the one-man meme machine’s now-trademark humour, with jokes about signs in the crowd (“What’s that sign say?… Lewis, my child is your double!… well, it’s not my fuckin’ child!”), too much sex (“Sex every night sounds awful if you ask me. Sometimes you just want to come home and watch Emmerdale and Coronation Street”; “You’ve got an insatiable appetite for penis, I can’t keep up!”), and being too busy to accept a wedding invite from the crowd (“I’m fuckin’ booked busy!”). All tongue in cheek, of course. 

It’s as much about the music tonight as it is Capaldi’s inner thoughts, shared with the room. “Stop shouting my name! One man can only take so much adulation!” we’re instructed at one point. Of course, there is the matter of the aforementioned new album, from which some new tracks are previewed tonight: Heavenly Kind Of State Of Mind brings a Coldplay-esque sheen to the songwriting, while Wish You The Best is the spiritual piano-ballad successor to Someone You Loved we didn’t know we needed. 

There’s a cheeky onstage proposal before recent number one Pointless (an Ed Sheeran co-write; “he couldn’t fuckin’ be arsed coming,” it is noted) before the main set finishes with an extended version of Hold Me While You Wait. Returning for the encore, Lewis Capaldi seems genuinely grateful that people still care about his music, apologising in the process for his Tourette’s syndrome (“but I get a parking pass, so…”) and ending the night with the sad singalong that is Somebody You Loved.

Lewis Capaldi, Cardiff International Arena, Wed 1 Feb

words JOSHUA WILLIAMS photos ANTHONY CONWAY