There’s a certain magic about Henry Moodie as he skips onto the Koko stage wearing a heart-emblazoned black vest, leather trousers and a huge smile.
The 19-year-old has enjoyed a stratospheric rise over the past two years and sold out his own headline show at the prestigious 1,500-capacity London venue – Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars and Amy Winehouse have all taken to the Mornington Crescent stage.
We’d be getting a little ahead of ourselves to be comparing Moodie to those pop greats but what’s clear from the moment the singer opens on ‘pick up the phone’ on Friday night is all the ingredients are there in abundance.
It doesn’t take long for the star to cite the pop music of 2005 to 2015 and his influence before dipping into a mash-up of Taylor Swift smash ‘Love Story’ and Katy Perry hit ‘Teenage Dream’. Later on in the night, he brings The Vamps star and support act James McVey back on stage for a rendition of ‘Somebody To You’.
Those singalong moments are crowd pleasers but the true highlights of the evening come in Moodie’s own tales of teenage friendship and lovesickness. ‘closure’ is tender in its recounting of heartbreak while ‘you were there for me’ is a hugely endearing ode to a best pal.
There’s clearly plenty more to come from the singer too with unreleased tracks in the vault. “This one is a little bit depressing, sorry guys,” he jokes before playing ‘The Old Me’. Written in his bedroom just months ago, the ditty fills Koko as Moodie muses on rocketing from schoolboy into the industry under a spotlight – it’s brilliant songwriting.
The show’s production is minimal as Moodie leans on the stories in his songs and soaring vocals. Nonetheless, by the time he reaches the bridge of ‘Orbit’, the sound feels arena-sized.
The night ends with a flourish as the star spins along to new single ‘beat up car’ before delivering the viral ‘drunk text’. That final song is the pick of the lot, a charming pop track from the heart that many would spend careers striving to write, but amazingly this is clearly just the start for Henry Moodie.
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