Now I’ll be the first to admit - the prospect of Paolo Nutini supporting Bloc Party at Hydro Connect on Saturday wasn’t one that initially filled me with excitement. However, I’ll grudgingly accept that he was far better than I expected, even if he did choose to do the (slightly strange) choice of playing a lot of new material.

His debut album was mostly full of typical chart singer/songrwriter stuff, which didn’t rub many people up the wrong way, and had enough pull that grannies and tweenies loved him along with people in their 20s and 30s, but his new stuff sees him get a bit Johnny Cash and 60’s/70’s US rock on us. This is no bad thing and certainly shows us that the local lad is more than a one trick pony.

Perhaps the highlight of the set wasn’t the hits being wheeled out at the end, or the tales of growing up, instead an inspired choice of cover. It took me a moment to realise, but the call-and response of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” was perhaps one of the undoubted highlights of the day, possibly the weekend.

Rounding off with “Jenny Don’t Be Hasty” he certainly had won me around, and it looked like the whole crowd were then swooning for the local Paisley lad. Look out for his new album - it looks set to be a corker.

After the jump: Photos