An expectant hush filled St George’s Church as Sussex boy Johnny Flynn returned to the stage for his first live performance for some years. Opening with the rousing, anthemic Raising The Dead, you could be forgiven for looking twice at the figure centre stage; gone were the trademark floppy blonde locks and youthful looks but the artist’s charm firmly remained. Cheers greeted each song.

Much like Bob Dylan setting aside his acoustic guitar and "going electric" in Newport in 1965, Flynn's sound has deepened and become bigger, louder and altogether more … modern. Whenever the songwriter seemed in danger of becoming drowned out by the backing band, he drew the audience back in.

A wonderful trumpet solo here, a humble but genuine between-song comment there, Flynn had the audience in the palm of his hand. When old favourite The Water appeared, complete with beautiful harmonies from bandmates Holly and sister Lily, you got the sense that here was an artist maturing at just the right rate.

The bigger sound allowed for more nuances in melody and tempo and made perfect sense. It’s hard not to fall a little in love with Johnny Flynn and by the end of the gig the audience were literally dancing in the aisles. A loud, insistent standing ovation rewarded us with three more songs including triumphant solo Heart Sunk Hank and The Box. Simply glorious.