Tom Grennan is a hard sell in a world as cynical as this. As family photos scroll on giant screens he climbs into the syrupy Here, having dedicated the song to his mum and dad, who are in the building. “When the sky turns black, I’ll be the light you need,” he sings. It makes a change from saying that dreams can come true, at least.
When the final chorus hits, confetti rains down in a flash of arena pomp that should be enough to scour away his everyman mask. Instead, it does the opposite: it feels like watching your mate from back home win, and win big. This arena tour is the anointment of the Bedfordshire singer as a proper pop star, five years on from his debut.
It takes a while for that dynamic to work, though. Grennan opens with the maudlin Don’t Break the Heart and, momentarily, looks small surrounded by all that stage. Decked out in a floral shirt and trousers combo that, he admits, has an air of nan’s curtains about it, he seems reluctant to use the runway that juts out into the room, projecting a happy-to-be-here vibe that he struggles to shake.
Everything clicks into place during All These Nights. Lifted from his forthcoming record, it is a fizzing, new wave-inflected romp that sends a surge of energy into the crowd. With neon pinks and blues saturating the backdrop, Grennan tears from wing to wing, generating momentum to bring it home in a strong second half.
The setlist is peppered with new songs that suggest album three will serve a similar function in a wider career sense. He performs two of its ballads – This Side of the Room and You Are Not Alone – beside a grand piano. In this austere setting, the depth behind his voice bubbles up, moving his default Jamie T-meets-Lewis Capaldi mode to one side and displaying welcome melodic nuance.
At one point, Grennan pulls a fan from the crowd to sing Remind Me with him. “He’s gonna be good, innit?” he says with a laugh. In another timeline these roles might be reversed, and he is clearly aware of that fact. Cynicism be damned, it seems dreams can come true.