Gig review: Matt Cardle, O2 Academy, Glasgow

UNLIKE the majority of his X Factor peers, Matt Cardle had a solid gigging record behind him before he won the competition in 2010. He was a slightly odd fit and is probably still the only contestant who ever dreamed of touring the Academy venues rather than stepping out on the red carpet with fellow C-listers.

Cardle is the dreamboy-next-door with the requisite “hey girl” tremulous tone. No doubt he also has the technical chops, unfortunately, he has chosen to make his assault on the mainstream with an almost universally dreary set of wet and wistful middle-of-the-road ballads and sub-Coldplay/Sigur Ros po-faced anthems which invariably played out exactly as expected, songwriting-by-committee at its safest and most formulaic.

His pitch-perfect version of Ewan MacColl’s inherently moving First Time Ever I Saw Your Face could hardly fail to stand out in this company, eliciting a quite intimidating level of ardour from the crowd, as well as indicating what Cardle can achieve when let loose on a great song.

It didn’t have to be this way, as he demonstrated with a sensitive yet stirring acoustic cover of Biffy Clyro’s Many Of Horror, aka When We Collide, which struck a happy medium between Cardle’s cautiously alternative tastes and his paymasters’ commercial aspirations. Pop dreamboys come and go; Cardle needs to find material which sticks.

Rating: **

FIONA SHEPHERD