There are very few singers who have achieved as much as Laura Marling in her 20 years on the earth, nearly all of which have been financed by either Disney or Simon Fuller. Her rapid rise is signalled not only by her becoming an artist whose albums sell well, but also one critically lauded by just about everyone. Tonight is the final night of her biggest tour to date – a sell-out; she filled the 2,286 capacity London Palladium within days of going on sale and is greeted by an audience of all ages, from folk fans who remember the genre in its infancy to new recruits.

Like most who achieve success at a young age, Marling is very visibly maturing in public and the gulf between her old and new material is quite clear. She only plays four tracks from debut, Alas I Cannot Swim, with its tales of youthful romance, betrayal and friendship, compared to the tracks she plays from second release I Speak Because I Can, where the lyrics are brazen, frank and open. It’s ironic, though, because throughout her early career, Marling looked like a tiny rabbit in an HGV’s headlights on stage, barely uttering a word between songs. Now she’ll joke with the audience and even play two songs that she wrote only the previous week as well as a cover of Neil Young’s The Needle and the Damage Done. This new-found confidence is perhaps reflective of the terrific reception she’s been getting, and it’s well deserved as from the opener strums of Devil’s Spoke to the closing I Speak Because I Can, she has the Palladium’s gargantuan crowd in the palm of her hand. Other highlights are Alpha Shallows, Hope in the Air and Night Terror, on which Marling demonstrates that she’s not only a great songwriter, but a champion whistler too. Marling has enjoyed a remarkable career so far, both in terms of the quality of her output and her ascent in popular musical consciousness. Long may it continue.