John Newman - Love Me Again

  by John Clarkson

published: 7 / 9 / 2025

During the first part of the last decade, my girlfriend and I would stay up at the weekend, watching music videos on a late-night programme on the TV. I was doing both Penny Black and working full-time, my girlfriend was also busy, and it was our way of unwinding after an active week. I didn’t care much for most of the songs, but at the same time I enjoyed switching off listening to and watching music from ‘the other side’, which I would never feel obliged to review. It also plugged a gap which had lain open since ‘Top of the Pops’ had finished a few years before in 2006, It had also never been filled even temporarily by ‘Later..’, with its host Jools Holland’s insistence on sticking his boogie-woogie piano over as many of his guests’ songs each week as possible. The next day I would find it hard to separate these videos and their montage of gangsta rappers, multi-octave hitting singers and ‘X-Factor’-linked pop artists, apart from each other. John Newman, however, was different. The video for his debut 2013 single ‘Love Me Again’ shows the nimble-footed Newman on stage with his band. Unlike most other videos of the time which were not anything more than a set of linked images, it had a plotline with a beginning, a middle and an end. Its main characters are two ‘Romeo and Juliet’-style reconciled lovers, who incur the wrath of her brother and his gangster friends by getting back together, They escape from the club that Newman is appearing in and run out into the street, where they are literally hit by a shock ending, The song, which went to No 1 in the UK, was good too, combining swirling , very modern programmed orchestration with a much more old world brass section and a strong Northern Soul influence, Newman’s soaring vocals, set against its surging and catchy tune, were similarly tremendous. ‘Tribute’, the album from which ‘Love Me Again’, was taken, was also excellent. Its title track and a chart in the CD booklet which accompanied it listed some of the artists who had influenced him. These ranged from The Cure to Etta James, and Joy Division to Aaron Neville, as well as then more recent acts such as Rudimental, who he had worked with, and Basement Jaxx. Newman, who was then 23, clearly knew his music. His ascendancy was, however, brief. Subsequent singles and a 2015 second album ‘Revolve’, while also charting, didn’t do quite so well. He developed mental and physical health issues and had to have a second operation for a brain tumour. John Newman quickly and somewhat cruelly dropped out of public view. The video for ‘Love Me Again’ showcases something in mainstream pop which at the time was unusual against an otherwise bland backdrop, and its singer, a young man, who briefly seemed set to take on

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