James Blunt at Raffles, Chelsea, 2007
Raffles, King's Road, Chelsea, London · 2026
James Blunt is in the news this week as his eighth studio album, Airplane Mode, leads the race for Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart, after he promised to change his name to Ryan Air if it reached the top (Official Charts). The final chart is announced on Friday 13 November.Airplane Mode was released on 6 November 2026 on Atlantic. A Number 1 would be his third, after Back to Bedlam and All the Lost Souls.
June 2007
In June 2007 Back to Bedlam had already made him one of the best-selling British artists of the decade, and You're Beautiful had been a hit around the world. His second album, All the Lost Souls, was three months from release. It went on to reach Number 1 that September.
Raffles, Chelsea, 24 June 2007
On the night of 23 June 2007 he was on the King's Road in Chelsea. The pictures show him leaving Raffles, the members' club, at about a quarter to three in the morning on 24 June.
He wears a blue T-shirt with a red lightning bolt under a brown suede jacket, with faded jeans and brown boots. In the first frame he looks back towards the door. In the second and third he stands on the pavement outside the club, hands in pockets, looking towards the camera.
The pictures
Three frames from the set are here. The full set is available to license through BACKGRID. Faces of bystanders are blurred in every frame.
Credit: Charlie Pycraft / BACKGRID. Licensing: Backgrid UK Sales, backgrid_uksales@shutterstock.com