Billy Lockett back to his best at headline gig at Islington Assembly Hall

Towards the end of Billy Lockett’s headline gig at Islington Assembly Hall on Tuesday night, the Northampton singer songwriter paused to talk to the hundreds packed inside about his last major gig in the capital.

In 2019, he headlined the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire – but in the days which followed, he was dropped by his former label.

Fast forward 30 months and Lockett has a new label and is getting ready to release his debut album Abington Grove in February.

Explaining the challenge of getting his career back on track, fans cheered as he thanked them for sticking with him - “Thanks for giving a s***,” he joked.

At Islington, he performed a good chunk of material from his forthcoming record as well as some of his biggest hits.

Most of the gigs Lockett has played in recent years have been solo and while his ability of performing solely behind a piano is second to none, it was great to see him again joined by a full band and genuinely enjoying himself.

Opening proceedings was singer-songwriter Dani Sylvia, performing with Barney Cox who has produced Lockett’s debut. The pair did an admirable job warming up the Islington crowd.

Dressed in a red suit and white All Stars, Lockett arrived on stage after his band – which included fellow NN musician Esmeralda Edwards on bass - and launched into recent single Not OK, before heading into a trio of tracks from his forthcoming record, Sushi, Don’t Worry and We Used To.

The latter, he went onto tell fans, he’d been holding onto for years.

Performing new material to an audience for the first time is always a calculated risk, but for Lockett it paid off.

He was in his element playing new tracks and they sounded huge.

This was partly thanks to his band, but also because of Lockett’s ability to craft slices of piano led pop perfection.

Lockett was joined by violinist Marta Martinez for a rendition of one of the instrumental tracks from his 2020 record Together At Home and also covered Happy Together by The Turtles.

Ahead of new single Last Thing On Your Mind, Lockett paused to explain the worry and anxiety when singles underperform, but the joy when one resonates with fans – his latest track has already clocked up more than 100,000 streams across digital platforms he told the Islington audience.

Lockett swapped the piano for guitar on You’re Not Alone and after leaving to a standing ovation, he returned to chants of ‘Billy’ to end his set with Hard Act To Follow.

Billy Lockett would probably be the first to admit the last few years have been challenging, but his hard work is paying off.

You hear musicians roll out the old trope, “this is the most fun gig I’ve done,” all the time – but when Lockett told those inside the Assembly Hall this, you could tell he was genuinely happy being on stage.

Lockett’s enjoying performing, his fans are relishing watching him and – in case anyone inside Islington Assembly Hall on Tuesday night didn’t get the memo - he’s got an album coming out!

Abington Grove is available to pre-order now via https://billylockett.com/collections/abington-grove