By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****

WHEN?: Tuesday 25 October 2022, last night of tour

SETLIST: Emotions; Risk It All; We Got Love; Places; Ugly; What About Us; All For You; Let’s Go Home Together; Northern Lights; Everything I Didn’t Say; Heartstrings; Crazy What Love Can Do; This Is Real; 21 Reasons; Friends; Good Things Take Time/About Damn Time; Glitterball; Yours; Ghost

The most electric moment during this gig was when support act Ducrot took to the stage with Henderson (pictured above centre with her band at this veniue) to duet on their current top 20 hit, the beautiful ballad All For You, and followed it with the brilliant lockdown smash Let’s Go Home Together.

• Read on for reasons including how to see Cian Ducrot on tour in London in March 2023

We’ll start with Ducrot who we saw headlining the Lafayette in London last month when we described him as the ‘Irish Ed Sheeran’ and we think he is such a talented singer/songwriter that we can’t wait for him to be a breakout star of 2023 where we join him on tour in KOKO in London in March (ticket link below).

Tonight he plays a short set including the original of All For You, 1 of our favourite songs of 2022, and a new song about a friend who committed suicide which is so heart-on-sleeve that it’s such a brave thing to do as a support act and only elevates him in our eyes.

Also included is new single I’ll Be Waiting, which is released 11 November, and will hopefully see him surpass the heights of his current ballad hit.

We last saw Henderson headline this venue when she was on the crest of a wave of international success with Ghost in 2015 and said then: ‘She’s clearly writing about herself and her experiences and it is in this respect that you expect that her next album will be even more successful because she will have much more life experience to draw on.’

What we didn’t expect and Henderson admits as much tonight would be that the follow up to that 1st album would take 7 years to appear. Everything I Didn’t Say was an album of the week for us back in March.

It’s a fascinating, personal collection that is predominantly mid-tempo and we enjoy the hope of Northern Lights from it tonight which provides some light relief from some of the darker, mental health concerns expressed.

Henderson’s career is curious because, as well as releasing a serious album, she continues to have hit after dancefloor hit which means this set boasts some real bangers and this gig is far more uptempo and revelatory than we’ve seen from her before.

It’s also much busier than we were expecting and Henderson is clearly enjoying the winding path she’s taking in the music business and support act Ducrot is very complimentary about her. Perhaps she recognises in him someone who is super talented yet received a rougher ride than deserved from a reality singing show.

She continues to plough an interesting and joyous career furrow for herself and we look forward to more gigs and a 3rd album much quicker from her than the previous 7-year break.

• Main picture courtesy Ella Henderson Tickets Cian Ducrot Tickets
• Have you heard any of these songs or seen any of these shows? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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