It took less than 30 minutes for James Arthur fans to snap up all the tickets to see him in Carlisle.

The singer songwriter comes to the city on Saturday as part of his Up Close and Personal Tour.

Since winning X Factor in 2012, he has had a roller-coaster career, with huge record sales and live tours matched by personal problems and controversy.

This week he accused the Reading & Leeds festival of not booking him because they did not take him seriously, owing to his reality show past.

Earlier this summer, he called Glastonbury festival “snobs” for not asking him to perform.

Despite the apparent snubs by big festivals, he has continued to build a huge following and rack up repeated success since his X Factor win.

Impossible, the single from the show, went straight to number one in the UK singles chart and he has sold more than 25 million records and racked up over 3 billion streams worldwide.

His biggest hits include You’re Nobody ‘til Somebody Loves You, Say You Won’t Let Go and Falling Like the Stars.

He is due to release his third album, titled You, soon, and is expected to preview new tracks from it when he appears at The Sands Centre on Saturday.

Following his sold out UK arena tour in 2017, Arthur has spent more than 43 weeks in the singles charts, collaborated with the likes of Rudimental, Marshmello and Anne-Marie on their smash hit Rewrite The Stars and performed all over the world.