In James Blunt's previous life in the army, he will have learnt all about military precision. His first headline tour since shifting a million copies of his Back to Bedlam debut album begins on time, to the second. Furthermore, every musician on stage has a strictly monitored drinks selection (one energy drink, one lager, one mineral water), all of which remain untouched. Appropriate metaphors for a performance that doesn't drop the stiff upper lip all night.
It might be nerves, or the crystal, revealing clarity of this Gateshead venue, but Blunt doesn't connect emotionally with his songs. Instead, they're dispensed briskly and note- perfectly, but without the frisson you'd expect from words about love and death. Only No Bravery, Blunt's superlative song channelling his experiences in Kosovo to lament the futility of warfare, sees something approaching passion. "The smell of death is in the air, a woman weeping in despair says he's been here," cries Blunt. The song has the power of a showstopper, but is dispensed with only three songs in.
The oiled routine is a shame because Blunt clearly has something going on. He likes Elliott Smith and Bright Eyes, and tends to follow similar terrain with fewer sonic edges. A B-side, Sugar-Coated, is so obviously about drugs that perhaps the police who raided Pete Doherty earlier this week may have another job. Blunt is clearly peeved by his public image - "I'm the housewives favourite - here's another song about drugs!" he says, introducing Out of My Mind. But he doesn't help himself with his rigid formula, choreographed stagecraft and a speaking voice reminiscent of a 1950s public information announcer.
Still, even if it is middle-aged mums who are buying his album in truck-loads, tonight's crowd seems to be made up of urban trendies and a surprising contingent of gay men. Blunt's blue-eyed, cheeky chappie persona is entertaining but gradually detracts from his "instalments of misery". No one expects him to be in floods of tears, but if he'd loosen up, new lyrics like "I've seen the enemy, he just looks like me" would have more power. An encore of the Pixies' Where is My Mind? is unexpected, but so sterile you suspect Blunt would have trouble misplacing a tie pin.
· At Sheffield University (0114-222 8777) tonight. Then touring.
