Also in attendance is someone who looks a lot like Camilla Bowler, the long-term girlfriend he reportedly split with before allegedly hooking up with one of the Pussycat Dolls. From the single suitcase that will take him round the world until next September, he selects a new T-shirt. Especially for someone who got a 2:1 for their analysis of pop idolatory, and who’s managed by Elton John’s people.THE NIGHT after Philadelphia, James Blunt and full band are playing the first of two nights at the Bowery Ballroom (capacity: 550) The atmosphere is intense and boozy. One of the co-writers on Back To Bedlam has been trying to squeeze more money out of him. A tragedy from his younger days was dragged out and the facts twisted to cause him maximum damage.All in all, it does Blunt’s head in “Some of the things are incredible,” he says.

“That’s where it becomes celebrity, which is away from what you actually do, which is music.” It’s a fair point, but thunderously na?. “I’m standing on stage, singing things that are incredibly personal. Before you know it someone’s written a newspaper article saying how meaningless it is – most people will be pretty insecure about that!” He’s wrestling with the old conundrum: he’s Britain’s most popular artist but he craves credibility too.The tabloids have slithered over his past, tracking down army buddies, doorstepping his parents and digging up the ex-girlfriend about whom he reportedly wrote “You’re Beautiful” – Dixie Chassay, a casting director and now paramour of actor Tom Hollander (he refuses to confirm if She’s The One). He’s been slagged off all year, by the music industry, media and musical peers alike, as the epitome of MOR tedium.

Even then, Bedlam was on release for almost nine months before “You’re Beautiful” began its climb up the charts.There are other understandable reasons for his standoffishness. It was at a gig at an industry showcase festival in Austin, Texas, that Linda Perry – hit songwriter to Pink, Christina Aguilera and Gwen Stefani – decided Blunt was an artist of sufficient calibre to sign to her Custard label. He played the London pub circuit for two years before being picked up by his management, Twenty First Artists, which also looks after Elton John. More than one record company backed off, fearing he was too posh to push on the record-buying public. Even when surrounded by giggling fans he displays steely control It’s hard to imagine him cutting loose. It’s like he’s still on duty.Maybe he’s just making the most of his success. It seems like he came from nowhere this year, tipping the music industry on its arse and reaching out to untold millions who feel marginalised by most rock and pop music.

Who were waiting for someone who knew their way round human interaction and social conscience as well as they did a good tune.In fact his first gig was in 2000, at the tiny Water Rats pub in King’s Cross, while he was still in the army. But while an unfailingly polite host – he lets me hang about his dressing room as much as I like – there’s a reserve, a stiffness about him. But when it comes down to it, I haven’t felt like I’ve changed or controlled anything.” The Blunt phenomenon? It’s all about his songs, he insists.He’s a wary bloke, James Blunt When he wants to be, he can be pithy and funny. “There are some aspects that are relevant to the songs I’m writing. About the way humans interact, the way we are as social beings … those [topics] are kind of relevant.”But he waves away the suggestion that in some way writing his dissertation helped him get where he is. “It was talking about how the music industry controls image and develops something.

So, as he’d wanted to be a musician from the age of 14, he pointed the subject of his sociology dissertation towards his ambition. Its title: “The Commodification of Image – Production of a Pop Idol.”Was it research for your music career?”Exactly. It was [before the TV show] when Pop Idol meant a different thing.”He found sociology useful for songwriting too. An attempt to rebel against his military-oriented career path? “I wish I could say yes,” he smiles, “but it was just easier, and my mates were doing it. Only six hours of lectures a week.” He found sociology interesting because “you could direct it the way you wanted”. But then, the album only came out there two weeks ago.James Blunt knows all about marketing and music.