John Newman pays Tribute to the good, the bad and the ugly

At the tender age of 23, Yorkshire singer-songwriter John Newman has much to draw on for his debut album Tribute. Picture: Contributed

“I’ve got to thank everyone, whether they’ve been bad or good, because they’ve all changed my life in a little way,” he says. At just 23, Newman has plenty of tear-jerking material to draw upon – a father who left when he was little, a break-up with a girlfriend and then a brain tumour just as his pop career was taking off.

As the story goes, he heard the first radio play of Feel the Love, his No 1 collaboration with collective Rudimental, from a hospital bed. Not quite true: “I was in a waiting room, waiting for the surgeon to tell me how she was going to operate on me in three days’ time.”

The tumour on his pituitary gland put so much pressure on his optic nerve that he still can’t see to one side. “It was caught very late so I was in quite a bad place,” he says.

The episode put his career on hold for about six months, but his first solo single went to the top of the charts in July. Love Me Again is a monster of a song, with its pounding piano, northern soul horns and that voice roaring over the top.

Newman studied at Leeds College of Music, then met Rudimental while he was working in a London pub. Recently he played a homecoming show at Settle’s Victoria Hall. “It’s a bit weird. I hate turning up there like Johnny Big Bollocks.”

His mum attended but not his dad. They’re not in touch. “Because he left when I was six it left me a bit vulnerable. But I decided I weren’t going to take any more shit. I’m really proud that I’ve been able to teach myself a lot of things and look after myself. I wouldn’t like to rely on people. I like making my own decisions.”

• John Newman plays the Arches, Glasgow, on 28 October. Johnnewman.co.uk