Paolo Nutini @ Corran Halls, Oban, 28 May

Paolo Nutini visits the Highlands with an honest interpretation of his classics and a humble offering of new releases

Live Review by Maeve Hannigan | 01 Jun 2022
  • Paolo Nutini @ Corran Halls, Oban

Paolo Nutini strolls into our lives again with an Italian breeze and Scottish edge that is only too familiar, and before festival season, Nutini is allowing fans to listen in an intimate way. After a five-year hiatus, the Paisley artist announced new shows at the Leadmill in Sheffield, the 100 Club in London and the Corran Halls in Oban – the latter, a random stroke of brilliance. The Corran Halls, where high school dance shows had parents crying over costume changes and the Highlands and Islands Music Festival had teuchters two-stepping. 

It seems that a sunny evening in Oban makes for a rowdy crowd, which brings its highs and lows. Of course, people have come from all across Scotland and there is an intense energy in the air that is heightened with alcohol and people mistaking a sound tech for the artist himself. Nope, it’s just another guitar being tuned – Nutini has come prepared. He humbly walks on to the stage in front of a hungry audience. It’s nothing he isn’t used to, but after five years away, fans gain a certain level of entitlement that Nutini handles calmly and cooly. 

New track Afterneath opens the show with instrumental stirs and spoken word that draws from the pent-up energy in the bobbing heads below.  The drumbeat rolls into the Rolling Stones blues of Lose It. Here, Nutini reinstates his unique range over a rock ensemble. Intervals erupt into an “Oh Paolo Nutini” chant that the artist warmly nods to in thanks. 

Nutini delicately balances the new with the old, while cleverly steering this away from being a greatest hits show. Old tracks have been fiddled with and styled differently; new tracks are introduced with a humble offering. “Thank you for listening to all the new songs… the sooner we play them they’ll become old fucking songs, if you know what I mean.”

Acid Eyes, Everywhere and Radio bring depth and duality with a New Wave tone and echoing air. With a whisky on the side of his Guinness, Nutini has the crowd on board and firmly grips their loyalty. “Slàinte mhath”, he nods and heads follow suit as the pints get knocked back.

Candy is played now with a full band backing and electric guitar slides that give the track a fuller sound. I try to ignore the two middle-aged women to my left as they attempt to fight each other over his effortless serenade of “darling I’ll bathe your skin, I’ll even wash your clothes…” The song no longer becomes Nutini’s own, but the room’s in perfect unison – the lyrics are ingrained in our minds. “That was lovely”; he obviously didn’t catch the fistycuff. 

There are moments in the night when the band step out and Nutini is left alone, with an acoustic guitar and a stool. A hopeful Glaswegian shouts every now and then, “Paolo! Caledonia!” Instead, Nutini soothes his soulful raspiness with Dream A Little Dream of Me. The gig feels playful and personal to what Nutini is feeling in the moment. The stars disperse and These Streets once more feeds the hardcore fans. 

Pencil Full of Lead is unrecognisable. What was once played with dancing trumpets in a swinging beat is mellowed and stripped down along a similar flow to Paul Simon. Nutini can take a breath in this version and the lyrics are heard like never before: “I’ve got so much more than I needed before.” It's an older Nutini reflecting on the past. 

Nutini even allows the crowd to indulge in a verse of Caledonia – “fuck it… you’ll need to bear with me though.” New track Writer closes the show, as Nutini sits on his stool like he’s joined an intimate conversation. “It’s a little song on the new record about me being a bit of a hopeless eejit… well they all are.” Writer tails into a Christy Moore-esque folk song, as Nutini becomes the storyteller and reminds the crowd of the depth of his songwriting. It is his most honest track of the forthcoming album Last Night in the Bittersweet, one that clutches the chaotic yet loving crowd for a moment and pulls them closer.


Paolo Nutini releases Last Night in the Bittersweet on 1 Jul

paolonutini.com