Faulkner’s debut album, topped the British charts

The gritty ballad I’m Not Giving Up Yet, the epic If This Is It and the jaunty Badman eclipsed fey favourites Dream Catch Me and U.F.O, while his traditional cover version, Massive Attack’s Teardrop, was likewise trumped by a ramshackle tilt at Blackstreet’s No Diggity.Alone but for a succession of guitars, his effects pedals, what he claimed was a “foot piano” and, accompanying him on Won’t Let Go, a string section he’d recorded onto a cassette, Faulkner was more than a glorified busker.