Billy Lockett plays sold-out hometown Christmas shows at The Picturedrome

Three years in, it’s becoming a bit of a tradition this. Billy Lockett, helping to usher in Christmas with sold out gigs in his hometown.

The Northants singer songwriter returned to The Picturedrome in Northampton on Sunday and Monday nights, having headlined the same venue last year and St Matthew’s church the year before that.

However, this year was a bit different. While Lockett headed home on the back of another headline UK tour, this time it was touring his debut album Abington Grove which was released in February.

Joining Lockett across the two gigs was Harrison Hood, Maddox Jones and Stephen Tanner.

Back at the venue where it all started, Lockett was flanked on stage by a (not to scale) replica of his English bulldog Trevor and surrounded by candles.

After walking on stage to cheers and sitting behind his piano, he opened with Together At Home from his ‘lockdown’ self-released instrumental record before heading into Covered In Chaos, one of his very best tracks from earlier in his career.

Lockett has always enjoyed a great rapport with his audience and he was in full flow from the offset on Sunday, pausing early on in his set and asking for his reverb to be turned down, joking “I sound like god.”

The bulk of Lockett’s set was taken from his debut album, with Empty House, Call Me In The Morning and Sushi all featuring early on.

For Talk, Lockett brought fellow singer songwriter Afreine onstage while later on in his set, he was joined by a vocal trio.

The following night, Lockett was joined by Mae Stephens – another Northants artist who has had a huge year and is clocking up millions of monthly listeners herself.

Returning to Sunday, audience members were encouraged hold their phone torches aloft for Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself.

And – after explaining there was no ‘backstage’ area to retreat to – Lockett ducked behind Trevor before reappearing for an encore which featured new single I Could Use A Friend and his own multi-million streaming hit, Hard Act To Follow.

Throughout his career, Lockett has proved time and again his ability to craft emotional piano ballads which are second to none. Abington Grove then proved he can do it on a larger project.

There’s a cliché that it’s easy to do it in your home town. It’s not. Nor is it easy to do it on consecutive nights.

After a year which saw Lockett release his debut album, headline Northampton’s music festival and sell out tour dates across the country, it’s hard to know how he’s going to top things next year.

One thing you can be sure about, there will probably be a sold-out Christmas show.

In fact, there is – and it’s already nearly sold out.

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