FRESH from the Brits and on the night of his 32nd birthday, James Blunt took Manchester by storm last night. A packed Apollo Theatre saw the former Army captain relaxed and on top form. With his understated charm and humour he drew the audience in as soon as he stepped on stage.

Opening with Billy and High, and audience sang their hearts out. And despite what some uncharitable types have suggested about his fan base, there wasn’t a single “bored housewife” in sight.

After snatching Best British Male and Best Pop Act at the Brits, selling upwards of 5.5m albums and counting established artists like Elton John among his friends, he has little to prove, despite jibes about him “singing like a girl” and being over-sentimental.

However, with his rapid rise to fame and Back To Bedlam the only album under his belt so far, it was a stretch to provide an hour of material and that included the entrance from stage left of a man with a birthday cake and a few bars of Happy Birthday from the audience.

That said, it was worth £20 of anyone’s money.

Predictably You’re Beautiful was saved for the encore. The phones came out as couples gave each other doughy-eyed looks as he belted out the song he was initially worried might be killed off by being over-played on the radio.

Quite why a deep voiced heckler shouted “eeyah” when he swapped the guitar for the piano for Goodbye My Lover is anyone’s guess but it was soon forgotten when after a quick joke about coming out to have fun, the singer-songwriter gave an emotionally charged version of the track he described as, “a really miserable song”.

Another less cheery but far provoking moment came when footage of war-torn Kosovo was projected onto the screen behind the band during No Bravery.

Did the one-time peacekeeper capture the hearts and minds of Mancunians last night? He certainly did.

American support act, two-man guitar and African drum combo Jason Mraz, also went down very well.