22/10/2025

James Blunt – Spark Arena: October 21, 2025 (13th Floor Concert Review)

JAMES BLUNT got a sellout crowd High at Auckland’s Spark Arena last night, ably supported by Australian singer-songwriter GO-JO. Carin Newbould was there to report back for The 13^th Floor, with Michael Jeong photographing the chaps in action.

JAMES BLUNT hit the stage at Spark Arena to lead a spirited sing-and-happy-clap-along to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of Back to Bedlam. I’m just going to call it from the start – this was a flawless gig, a masterclass in how to command an audience and recognise fans’ devotion to songs with significance in their lives.

Go-Jo

The opening act of the night was Go-Jo, the performing name of Marty Jo Zambotto, an Australian singer songwriter best known internationally for having represented his country (unsuccessfully, alas) at last year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

He seemed genuinely excited to be crossing the ditch for the first time – “I love you Auckland, let’s have some fun!” – and was excellent at hyping the crowd up. His set which, like James Blunt later in the evening, was well-paced and veered between guitar-driven rock and sensitive slower ditties.

His guitarist was outstanding, at one point “interrupting” an anecdote by launching into a powerful riff. With curls, a moustache, denim jacket and Michael Jackson spats (with some pretty cool dance moves to match), Go-Jo was very reminiscent of Benson Boone.

The standout of the set was Mrs Hollywood (2023), and he kept the songs coming for a solid half-hour before finishing with Milkshake Man. It may have been Go-Jo’s first visit to Aotearoa, but I suspect he’ll be back… although probably at a venue smaller than a packed out Spark Arena next time. Go-Jo deserves to go big.

James Blunt

Earlier this month I reviewed Teddy Swims’ gig at the same venue, and it was fascinating to see the similarities with James Blunt’s visit last night.

Both performers are unapologetically themselves, both engage with the audience in a natural and comfortable way and neither are afraid of opening up, being honest and vulnerable. There’s swagger and showmanship for sure, but also a sensitivity which is undeniably engaging, both lyrically and personally.

Blunt is famed for his bitingly witty Twitter (X) ripostes and self-deprecating humour, and there were plenty of fun elements when addressing the crowd. After asking who bought Back to Bedlam when it was first released, he observed “I’m fucking old – and some of you are fucking old too!”

There were definitely a high proportion of 40-65 year olds in the audience (and on stage – Blunt is 51), along with a good smattering of younger punters. Blunt commented that they had been brought up on their parents’ music and asked “Were any of you conceived to You’re Beautiful?” Yep, probably – there’s no denying that the track was huge in both the charts and in people’s lives. He did observe, however, that You’re Beautiful, with its stalker-ish undertone (and, like High, drug references), shouldn’t necessarily have its ongoing popularity as a wedding song!

The setlist was never going to be a surprise; as advertised – and as it said on the tin – the gig started with a run through of Back to Bedlam. Released in 2005, it has sold over 14 million copies worldwide, going multi-Platinum in both New Zealand and Australia and becoming the UK’s best-selling album of the decade. It’s obviously made Blunt a fair few quid – after thanking us for buying the album, he remarked “Because of you, I have a really fucking nice house in Ibiza.”

In these days of Spotify and “suggested for you” jumbled and eclectic playlists, it’s easy to forget how much thought and precision goes into scheduling tracks on a solo LP for effective flow and resonance. Back to Bedlam is a brilliant example of an album with light and dark, pace and pathos.

Many artists have enduring hits, but to have such a cohesive album, which stands up to almost an hour of compelling performance, is impressive. Starting with High, Blunt followed (per the album) by going straight into his biggest hit, You’re Beautiful. The crowd were only too happy to singalong. After rapturous applause, Blunt joked “There’s the hit, now it’s all downhill from here!”. In fact, the next two songs were big-hit bangers too – Wisemen, featuring an impressive rock guitar break, and Goodbye My Lover, with Blunt performing solo on piano, without the band, but with what appeared to be genuine angst on his face.

After saying that “There are only ten songs on this album and we’ve done four already – this’ll be the shortest fucking concert you’ll ever go to!” Blunt thanked the crowd for giving the band the opportunity to play the remaining six songs on the album, which are obviously not performed anywhere near as often as the opening hits.

He took his jacket off and returned to the guitar for Tears and Rain, with entertaining lyrical dalliances such as following up “concubine” with the rhyme of “friend of mine” in Out of My Mind. He’s a clever chap, not only with words, but with song structure and relatable themes which grab at the heart. Blunt admitted to being “thrilled and emotional”, as was the audience.

After a lengthy and humorous anecdote about the origins of his song Billy, Blunt returned to uber-poignancy with references to his time in the British Army in the reflective Cry, with the emotionally supportive lyric “Cry on my shoulder, I’m a friend” and no-holds-barred despair in No Bravery. Blunt performed this on the piano, detailing that he wrote it in 1999 whilst serving in Kosovo, but observing that the same images keep coming now, from the Middle East to Ukraine.

One of the definite standouts of the Bedlam retrospective was So Long, Jimmy, featuring the full band, a hefty element of Fender-driven guitar wank and exuberant synths, reminiscent of Ray Manzarek and The Doors. It was a fun rock interlude before the downers of depression and death which briefly followed. The band was immaculately tight, as you’d expect from a group touring this format worldwide since February: Auckland is the last stop before a final fling of five cities across Australia. Backed by piano/organ/keyboards, drums and the usual complement of two guitars, Blunt was free to strum along to his crystal clear vocals. Not that he didn’t have backing singers… upwards of 10,000 people were only too happy to sing and clap along for almost two hours. It was joyous.

After knocking off Back to Bedlam, the setlist included a couple of covers and tracks from four of Blunt’s subsequent albums All the Lost Souls (Same Mistake and 1973), Some Kind of Trouble (Stay the Night), Moon Landing (Postcards and Bonfire Heart) and Once Upon a Mind (Monsters). Most of the crowd knew these tracks, too, and the singing didn’t diminish. Blunt played ukelele on Postcards – “it makes me look bigger” – and revisited the ivories for an enthusiastic rendition of Slade’s Coz I Luv You.

There was a nod to Noddy (Holder) in the on-screen graphics, depicting platform boots and star-spangled, glam-rock top hats. Blunt has apparently been known to crowd-surf at this point, but it didn’t happen last night; instead, he ran a victory lap of the arena, upping the step count for both himself and the Spark security contingent. The other cover was of Robin Schultz’s OK – not really a cover though, as Blunt provided vocals on the original as a featured artist. It served as a high-energy homage to Blunt’s aforementioned home in dance capital Ibiza and a nice counterpoint to the “final” offering of the night, Blunt’s “favourite song in the world”, Same Mistake, with the venue lit up by thousands of phone lights. It was moving and magical.

The encore prompted a change of top, with Blunt donning an All Blacks jersey (is this obligatory for overseas artists playing at Spark?) to play Monsters – “a miserable song for my father”, written in response to his Dad’s diagnosis of stage four chronic kidney disease. It was heartbreaking and emotional, accompanied by black and white photos of Blunt with his father. At no point did it feel as though your emotions were being played, though – rather that these songs explored and exposed Blunt’s experiences, good and bad. The lyrics state “I know your mistakes and you know mine” and it really felt as though Blunt was one of us – knowing that we’re 10,000 flawed, multi-dimensional people, all exposing our souls to an honest recognition of everything life’s about.

The joyous responses to Bonfire Heart and 1973 provided a great end to a great night, with singing and clapping right through to the last chords. I first saw James Blunt in London in 2004, supporting Lloyd Cole and the Commotions on their own 20^th anniversary tour for Easy Pieces. He had written much of Back to Bedlam by then, so I was introduced to these songs pre-radio play and was absolutely blown away. Last night, Blunt signed off by saying “See you soon…in another twenty years.” I really hope he comes back to Aotearoa – and brings us Back to Bedlam – long before that.