If you ever needed a reason to get down early for a show, Jacob Alon is it.
Freshly announced as the first Scottish winner of the BBC Introducing Artist of the Year Award, the Fife-born musician has had a remarkable year, blazing a trail across the UK’s music scene and playing a host of shows great and small that have left audiences struck dumb.
Jacob, who identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, joins an impressive list of previous winners including Arlo Parks, Olivia Dean, Tom Grennan and Catfish and the Bottlemen and tonight they stun a packed-out Corn Exchange with spellbinding vocals and a bashful and inclusive charm.
The stage patter is warm with a comic’s timing – “On the count of three lets all tell each other our names. Three, two, one: Jacob” – but this year’s debut album In Limerence is packed with gorgeous folk-indebted tunes that sensitive and emotional too, exploring the singer’s youth in Fife, forbidden love and heartache.
With a giraffe print skirt and acres of curly hair, they’re striking looking but even playing solo with an acoustic guitar, songs like Don’t Fall Asleep and Fairy in a Bottle are remarkable, mixing a deft command of harmonics and ghostly vocals reminiscent of Nick Drake or Jeff Buckley.
It’s a curious mix of the achingly personal and the profane. Before the final song, they announce a special guest – Billy the Piper, a tourist tat shop toy that plays the national anthem.
“The last time I was in here I was working the bar at a rum and reggae festival, it’s so nice to be back here and be onstage” Alon quips. It will be no surprise if they are back as the headline act very soon.
A little over half an hour later, tonight’s main act is no longer someone who can be described as an up and comer. They are an artist who has fully grown into their powers.
Over the past decade, the poet, rapper, novelist and playwright Kae Tempest has released a series of acclaimed records and projects wrestling with questions of mental health and modern life, culminating in both this year’s excellent Self-Titled and his coming out as a trans man.
Tonight Self-Titled provides the building blocks and narrative arc for the evening’s show, moving through three acts and showcasing Tempest as one of Britain’s most eloquent, unflinching and sincere wordsmiths.
Backed simply by a DJ and multi-instrumentalist, Tempest strips from grey blazer, to a brown tee to a white vest, peeling back layers even as his songs wrestle in increasingly personal fashion with identity, societal alienation and the weight of colossal expectations.
He seems really touched by the audience response too, beaming out over the appreciative crowd, with a smile like the beam of a lighthouse as the beats build from tense, minimal hip-hop to strobing rainbow rave on the blackly comic Diagnoses.
As Grace, the tongue twisting state of the self and state of the nation banger fades away, Tempest welcome Jacob Alon back to the stage for a closing rendition of George Michael’s Freedom.
It’s a remarkable victory lap from a singer whose voice is as vital as ever.
Words: Max Sefton
Pictures: Calum Mackintosh @ayecandyphotgraphy