With a sold out UK tour and a number one debut album already tucked into his back pocket, James Bay is riding the crest of a wave of commercial success right now.

Translating that success into a compelling live performance could have been a tricky proposition, but a lean and lively Bay dressed in black and sporting his now-trademark fedora more or less pulled it off.

Singer-songwriters aren’t known for creating especially high energy affairs but Bay started the set at a decent pace with the up-tempo Collide and looked in the mood to rock out with guitar solos at every opportunity.

Unsurprisingly, though, the Hitchin-born singer, who called Brighton his ‘home from home’, did his best work in the minor keys of love and loss. Under the Dome’s roof Let It Go sounded like mainstream melancholy at its finest and Scars was expertly built to a passionate and powerful crescendo.

As the final guitar chimes of a rapturously received Hold Back River signalled the end of the 90-minute show it was clear that even with a surfeit of talented male singer songwriters jostling for position at the moment there is little sign of Bay’s wave breaking just yet.

Three stars