The Big Top played host to the opening performance of the 2026 Cheltenham Jazz Festival and it was a full-house for James Morrison.

His debut album, Undiscovered,  was released just on 20 years ago and this contributed more than half of the 19 songs played tonight. Amongst the 19 songs were all five singles taken from that first album as well as his most successful single Broken Strings taken from 2011’s Songs For You, Truths For Me album.

He kicked off with Power from You’re Stronger Than You Know, his album released in 2019, and immediately grabbed the audience by the scruff of the neck. With the 10 songs from Undiscovered and a further four from Songs For You, these took up almost the entire set; each song had the crowd cheering.

His personal engagement with the audience was refreshing, his musical delivery quite precise; the crowd loved every minute. He wasn’t slow to remind people that his debut album was 20 years old this year, this being one of only two of his albums that hit the top spot here in the UK and reached Platinum status both here and around the world.

With most songs coming from Undiscovered he did, eventually, get to his best single, Broken Strings, his 2008 single from the Songs For You album and which featured Nelly Furtado (whatever happened to her?).

His set ended with You Give Me Something from, you guessed it, Undiscovered, before he went on to play three encore songs finishing with the most popular Wonderful World.

Setlist:

Power

This Boy

Undiscovered

One Last Chance

You Make It Real

If The Rain Must Fall

I Won’t Let You Go

How Come

Under The Influence

Beautiful Life

Precious Love

Broken Strings

Nothing Ever Hurt

The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore

All Around The World

You Give Me Something

Encore:

Call The Police

Little Wings

Wonderful Life

Words & images: Reg Richardson