IF the rousing finale of Hold Back the River was anything to go by, 2015 really does belong to the man with the black hat, rock and roll hair and guitar.

What a year it has been for James Bay already.

The 24-year-old guitar-playing troubadour emerged from nowhere to win the Brits Critics’ Choice Award for 2015 – an accolade enjoyed in the past by Sam Smith, Tom Odell and Adele.

His debut album produced in Nashville The Chaos And The Calm went straight to number one, only adding to the hype surrounding the musician from Hertfordshire.

And last night he had the sell-out audience at the first night of his eagerly anticipated ten city April tour eating out of the palm of his guitar-laden hand.

James let his pitch perfect voice do the talking at Portsmouth Pyramids Centre as he delivered renditions of what will no doubt soon be hit after hit from his debut album.

The set got underway with upbeat Collide and Craving as cries of 'James, I love you' and 'marry me' reverberated around the venue to a surprisingly nervous James who made no secret of how overwhelmed he feels at the success of his album.

The atmosphere changed instantly though when he was left to what he does best with the evening's undoubted highlight - a faultless acoustic section starting with a crisp rendition of Running and Let It Go followed by Move Together and a goosebump inducing version of Scars, which he explained took two years to write after a break up and something he could only finish once he was reunited with his girlfriend.

Daily Echo:

As the set continued, James enjoyed engaging with the audience even cheekily flashing a smile as he returned for the encore saying 'you stayed.'

Good job we did because we heard Incomplete live for the first time ever and of course a sublime version of his hit track that has already clocked up 18 million views on YouTube which raised the roof of the glass pyramid building.

James is certainly going places and for this audience, it was a rare treat to encounter an act of this calibre in the flesh.