"Matt who?" seems a reasonable response to the name spelled out in giant letters behind the drum kit on Koko's stage. Other than the fans milling around a nearly full house, does anyone remember the former painter and decorator from Essex who won last year's X Factor? Cardle has spent most of the year out of sight, recording the album that will either bring him Leona Lewis-style success or pitch him into the abyss where the show's other male winners reside.

Tonight, he's burdened by both lack of magnetism and a poignant yearning to be lauded for his music. He's nervous behind the mic, still wearing the nerdy forage cap that was his X Factor trademark and gripping an electric guitar as if it's a talisman that will save him from the fate of the Steve Brooksteins of this world. He's keen to emphasise the idea that he's a musician, telling us his album, Letters, features co-writes with top names such as Eg White, "who's worked with James Morrison and Adele", and Phil Thornalley of Natalie Imbruglia fame.

Morrison is a useful yardstick, musically speaking: Cardle's best numbers tonight are those that veer toward Morrison's brand of clean-shaven rock, such as the soaring All for Nothing and a genuinely twisted version of Alanis Morissette's Uninvited.

Away from the epic schmaltz of his Christmas No 1, When We Collide, and new single Run for Your Life, he seems a much happier man. Unfortunately for him, schmaltz is what gets his public into a tizzy, with excitement peaking during a melismatic cover of Nights in White Satin. "And I love you, yes I love you" he warbles, and fans scream "I love YOU!" in reply.

He's endearingly grateful for the love, anyway, and consequently hard to dislike, but he may be about to find that winning The X Factor is no substitute for possessing the x-factor.