A LOT has changed since the year 2000, but Charlie Simpson’s successful musical transformation from angsty, commercialised pop-punk to gentle and, at times, disarmingly delicate folk-pop, is a change few could have expected.

Acoustic charmer Willow Robinson, piano maverick Andy Blackwell and upbeat Youtube star Emma Blackery warmed up the enthusiastic crowd, gently readying them for the main act.

The subdued stage banner “Charlie Simpson”, emblazoned in comic sans across a black background, at a glance bore similarity to a recent freedom of speech slogan, but was indicative of a decade’s worth of mellowing.

His fans had transformed too, pre-pubescent pop-punkers had become mild mannered 20-somethings, openly receptive to a 29-year-old’s croons over loves lost and found. As he bellowed “I’m not the same as I was when we were younger” on the gig opener Comets, you couldn’t doubt the authenticity of his claim.

Flawlessly refined vocals, highlighted by a surprise cover of Imogen Heap’s semi-acapella hit Hide And Seek, were supported seamlessly by finger picking skills exhibited during Down Down Down and Winter Hymns.

Confidence in his material evident and substantiated as purposefully omitted vocals in the upcoming single Long Road Home were filled in accordingly by effusive fans who at the end of the set begged for the now customary gig encore.

He duly obliged, returning with rapture to perform Farmer And His Gun to the delight of a capacity crowd who, perhaps in a different sense of the phrase, were all Charlie tonight.

Review by Kevin Holmes-Attivor