Xuenou > 30Music > Keith Urban woos west London with polished Nashville energy – is the Country cowboy cracking Britain?
Keith Urban woos west London with polished Nashville energy – is the Country cowboy cracking Britain?
Urban is best known in the UK as Nicole Kidman's husband, but he had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand at the Hammersmith Apollo

After his modest current run of UK concerts in venues that hold around 3,000 people, country-rock singer Keith Urban will head to North America to play 57 dates in arenas that hold seven times as many people. The tour will include a string of nights at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the glitzy venue where Adele was due to play her aborted run of shows earlier this year.

In other words, Urban is big news in America. Australia too. But he remains best known in Britain as the bloke with the blonde hair who stands on the red carpet next to his wife Nicole Kidman at awards ceremonies. And that’s a shame, because for all his occasionally cheesy charm he’s an engaging showman capable of holding audiences in the palm of his hand.

This was essentially an arena concert packed into a theatre. You don’t sell 15 million records, win four Grammys, have 20 number ones in the US Country charts and duet with Taylor Swift by not knowing how to perform. And Urban – in tight, ripped black jeans and black jacket, and surrounded by a five extremely accomplished musicians – brought polished Nashville energy to west London.

Opening song Days Go By summed up the mild outlaw energy of many of Urban’s songs. “I’m changing lanes and talkin’ on the phone/ I’m drivin’ way too fast/ And the interstate’s jammed with gunners like me,” he sang. To enjoy this music, you had to suspend cynicism and buy into the escapist fantasy. It wasn’t that hard, to be honest, such was the goodwill in the room. The cowboy affect was only mildly diluted when Urban shouted “Holly s–t, it looks amazing in here!” in an Aussie accent that was more Lassiters than Las Vegas.

But this is all part of Urban’s shtick. You get the sense he revels in being the plucky outsider. The 54-year-old was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia as a teenager before heading to Nashville in 1992. He broke into the closed shop of the country music scene and in 2000 became the first male New Zealander to reach the Top 10 in the Country charts. 

"His fans lapped it up" – Urban did not fail to put a smile on their facesCredit: Burak Cingi

Fame followed. Urban has since been a judge on American Idol and a coach on The Voice in Australia (he also, in 2001, posed nude for Playgirl magazine). It could reasonably be argued that this peripatetic life lends his music a glossy rootlessness, a sort of slick nothingness. But it could equally be said that his roving backstory gifts him the opportunity to gleefully leap between genres. So one minute he was singing the Ed Sheeran co-written ballad Parallel Line and the next he was playing the banjo stomp of Somebody Like You. It made for a more ­– not less – interesting night.

His fans lapped it up. He invited one – Sarah from Denmark – up on stage for a duet. He picked her because she was holding up a sign, a trend not hugely common in concerts here (unless you’re in a boy band). It was sweet and touching. As with so many things in this concert, trends were less important than connection between performer and audience.

Urban visited a B-stage for a short acoustic set. He played Adele’s Easy On Me, which he seemed to suggest was a song about overcoming unaccountable toxicity. And I thought it was about porce. The segment felt unnecessary. But he was soon back on the main stage, duetting on The Fighter with an on-screen virtual Carrie Underwood.

If the point of live music is to put smiles on people’s faces, then Urban did it in spades. It was an uplifting evening. If Britain doesn’t quite “get” Urban, then rather than it being our problem perhaps it’s to our advantage. It means we still get to see him in relatively small venues like this.


Until May 9. Tickets: keithurban.com