<\/p>\n
I<\/span>n 2012 John Newman\u2019s first hit, as featured vocalist on Rudimental\u2019s Feel the Love<\/em>, went straight into the charts at No\u00a01. The following year his first solo release, Love\u00a0Me\u00a0Again<\/em>, did it too, also earning him a Brit nomination for single of the year and one for the Ivor Novellos as best song musically and lyrically.<\/p>\n In 2022, as he prepared to relaunch a career that had reached such an extraordinarily early and ludicrously high peak, Newman was interviewed by the NME. \u201cI\u2019m crazy nervous but really excited,\u201d he said. \u201cI could become the biggest artist in the world or it might all go wrong, who knows?\u201d<\/p>\n Four years later Newman took to a small, temporary stage built on the back few rows of SSE\u00a0Energy Solutions Stand at a half-full Oval to provide the entertainment between the women\u2019s and men\u2019s opening games of the Hundred.<\/p>\n \u201cI love you so much!\u201d he shouted\u00a0as his set \u2013 very much relying on those early hits, but undoubtedly entertaining \u2013 built towards a climax. Literally on the first row of seats in front of the stage was a group of six people who didn\u2019t even turn around.<\/p>\n A gentle underarm throw away the SunRisers Leeds men\u2019s squad warmed up while managing to completely ignore not only Newman\u2019s best efforts but the fireworks launching sporadically just a matter of feet from them. Cricket<\/a> can be a cruel game, and this was it at its most vicious. Thanks for asking, Mr\u00a0Newman but no, we will not love you again. Or, indeed, at all.<\/p>\n Newman was, to be fair, performing to a niche audience, one for which few singers could possibly be more interesting than, say, Jason Roy, a man who a little later \u2013 while being forced to respond to fans\u2019 questions by the BBC, communicating through an earpiece as he was prowling the outfield for MI London \u2013 was asked to identify his favourite childhood hobbies and reacted as if a hobby was an entirely foreign concept.<\/p>\n