Harry Styles’ cricket skills outshine his singing at Wembley Stadium

Objects thrown at Wembley Stadium tend to be designed to hurt, like the coins aimed by football thugs at opposition players. For the first of Harry Styles’ four nights at the venue, however, both intent and type of object were entirely different. 

Offerings rained down on the British singer whenever he promenaded along a runway protruding into the audience. Styles caught several of these gifts mid-song, casually and one-handed, as though auditioning for a different national sport: the slip cordon in the forthcoming Ashes cricket series, to be precise. An arcing bouquet of flowers was plucked from the air during “Satellite”. A blue Stetson was pouched as he sang “Cinema”. Hand-eye co-ordination turns out to be a useful attribute for elite-level pop stardom.

In Styles’ case, that level is about as elite as it gets. Three albums into his solo career, the former One Direction heart-throb is one of the world’s biggest acts. His hit “As It Was” was Spotify’s most streamed song last year, while Harry’s House was the platform’s second most streamed album after Bad Bunny’s latest. His four dates at Wembley follow two from last June. All are part of his Love on Tour, which will have lasted almost two years by the time it ends in Italy next month. If you own shares in manufacturers of fake feather boas and pink Stetsons, then sell now: this is the top of the market.

The atmosphere in the 90,000-capacity stadium was electric. The vast majority of those present were girls and young women. Entire songs were chanted back at the singer, a sharp alto counterpart to the rumbling terrace anthems of football matches. A long snaky conga formed near the front during the peppy pop-funk of “Treat People with Kindness”. The deafening screams and cheers reached a peak when he covered One Direction’s hit “What Makes You Beautiful” as a finale before the encore.

In keeping with the retro flavourings in his songs, the music sounded live rather than bulked out by pre-recorded elements. A horn quartet gave a Prince-style swing to “Music for a Sushi Restaurant”. A guitarist scrunched his eyes and played a classic-rock solo lasting at least a minute during “She”. After the band members were introduced, they were permitted to meander into a burbling passage of jazz-funk, temporarily muting the screams. 

The staging was comparatively simple. Styles wore the same outfit throughout, a white T-shirt with braces and wide-legged trousers decorated with gold hearts. In the wrong hands (or legs), this get-up might resemble the costume of a children’s television presenter, but the singer carried it off with élan. Not really a dancer, he spent much of the time skipping and prancing to all parts. This Mick Jagger-esque display of energy was not without peril: a frisky reverse-prance went awry at one point with a collision into the keyboards. 

There were rather too many expressions of gratitude in his between-song chat. But he made a neat shimmy into ad-libbed territory when he spotted a sign reading: “Seeing as it’s Pride month, can you help me come out?” The singer promptly produced a rainbow flag and led his band in a seemingly improvised coming-out tune. The comer-outer later joined the list of people thanked at the end of the show. Unlike some other stars of his magnitude, Styles gives the impression of actually liking his fans.

As a communal occasion, the gig was highly engaging. As a musical event, however, it had shortcomings. Styles’ singing was ordinary: he’s a much less smoothly mobile vocalist on stage than in recordings. He wasn’t helped by a thuddy, bass-heavy audio mix. The only mud in heatwave London seemed to be found, alas, in the murky quality of Wembley’s acoustics. Its scale is momentous, but the home of football isn’t an ideal concert venue, not even for a star as bright as Harry Styles.

★★★☆☆

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