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In his first proper tour since the tail end of 2014, the 22-year-old Jake Bugg kicks off his brand new era with a number of first-time plays and a whole host of old favourites. Bugg and his three-piece band arrives on stage to little fanfare, not even allowing the walk-on music to start properly – there is a sense of no-nonsense about him that certainly hasn’t changed. Bugg’s familiar country sway is all over the downbeat brooding ‘On My One’ which kickstarts the set, rather than recapping the sound on his first two LPs this opener creates a sonic bridge to his new material. Next up is the sun-kissed strum of ‘You and Me’ from Shangri-La which conducts a sweet singalong, this is trumped as Bugg acts as storyteller on ‘Seen It All’ recounting the tales of a debauched Friday night in Nottingham. The first new debut is ‘Love, Hope and Misery’ which is all funk-chops and synth strings, one thing Bugg has learnt is the art of atmosphere replacing the simple instrumentation of his folk-rockwith space. The band leave Bugg ‘on his one’ to play a few acoustic songs mid-way through, after a few mishaps in between his backing band on the new material he jabs “I’m going to play a few acoustic numbers, the band are making too many mistakes.” First is the gently plucked oldie ‘Country Song’ which welcomes a moment of tenderness. His ability as a singer is stretched but hits on point in the ballad ‘A Song About Love’, he confesses that he never really liked the studio version and he’s dead right – the bare bones of the song is stunning in the live setting. There is a sense of effortlessness about Bugg which is prominent most in his natural ‘one man and a guitar’ aesthetic. As the band rejoin him, he himself even nods to his own insouciance in new song ‘Never Wannna Dance’ which is laden with a melancholic groove and chirping keys. ‘Slumville Sunrise’ operates at high speed generated by that quickfire riff, the pacy plugged-in side of Bugg is something he has truly mastered whichis proved further on ‘Kingpin’. The set is completed with the beat-led lead single ‘Gimme The Love’. The track finds Jake testing the waters of uncharted territory, influences post-1960s Blues are finally strapped into the songwriting, namely 90s House here. As the singer/songwriter style is seemingly second nature to him, it’s great to see him outside of his comfort zone wrestling with a fast-paced funk guitar line – this new flavour hits on something huge which hopefully is tapped into even further on the forthcoming album. With this new material in alignment alongside his first two efforts, it’s an impressive feat to hear such a scope of songs. Bugg hasn’t allowed himself to be stapled in as just a singer who belongs to another era, he’s progressed and proven he can shake up that often sticky and restricted nostalgic format. Be very excited for this new era of Jake Bugg.

Jake Bugg has declared his forthcoming third album “make or break time”. Having established himself on his two previous LPs as a one-man ­Arctic Monkey, the Nottingham singer-songwriter breaks the mould on On My One. Featuring dance synths, hip-hop beats and what sounds suspiciously like rapping, it’s a bold departure from the skiffle of his calling card Lightning Bolt. Sensibly, last night he drip-fed new songs among the old favourites. Backed by a three-piece band, he began with the title track from his next album. The old-time blues number saw Bugg on brooding form. “I’m a poor boy from Nottingham / I had all my dreams but in this world they’re gone,” crooned the 22-year-old over finger-picked guitar. Things brightened up on the winsome country-rock of Me And You, before Simple Pleasures saw Bugg tease out a series of tasteful licks from his Telecaster, proving he’s much more than a four-chord strummer. “I don’t like dancing so I wrote a song about it,” said Bugg, unpromisingly, byway of an introduction to another new song, Never Wanna Dance. With down-tempo R’n’B beats and a haunting chorus, it was a thrilling departure from the more straightforward tracks like Trouble Town. If Bugg’s sound is developing, he’s stubbornly hanging on to his less-is-more attitude to showmanship, which currently extends only to some between-song mumbling. Often the music is good enough to speak for itself. From the terrace anthem Two Fingers to the tender Song About Love, sharp-eyed lyrics and Teflon choruses abounded. And when proceedings were brought to a close by Gimme The Love — a new track owing more to the Red Hot Chili Peppers than the Gallagher brothers — this unexpectedly good gig was given the finish it deserved.