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Celeste Macdonald braved the rain to check out Florence & The Machine's huge show in Sydney last week:
On Thursday night, Florence & The Machine returned to Sydney on the Ceremonials tour. Needless to say, it was amazing. In such a large space as the Entertainment Centre, I always question whether any act can command the entire audience's attention for the length of the show. And then the hyperbolic silhouette of Florence Welch appears from behind a mysterious orange curtain to an audience of thousands of screaming teenage girls. If all you had to go on was the high-pitched screaming alone, you would've thought you were at a One Direction concert.
Wearing a silken cape, silver beaded shoulder-piece and velvet cut-out tights, coupled with her flaming red hair, as she steps out from behind the curtain singing the opening lyrics to Only If For A Night, Florence Welch looks like some kind of Norse Goddess of War.
Playing a nice mix of new and old, Florence & The Machine are skilled in giving the crowd exactly what they want. Playing all the hits with the same energy as if they were just released, reading through fan letters (which involved actually spotting one eager fan from an audience of thousands and personally thanking them for their gift of gin) and encouraging the crowd to join in at every step is probably what makes their live shows so appealing to the masses.
Mid way through, Florence urges as many audience members as possible to climb on to each others' shoulders. As one by one they hop up, Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) fittingly begins. Several times during the show, the theme of the Ceremonials Tour emerges. Florence politely asks the crowd to "Please be upstanding for the hymn." It gives the show a formal and orchestral quality and showcases Florence's brilliant vocal talent – leaving this reviewer wishing I was one of the lucky attendees of their Friday night show at the Sydney Opera House.
Review by Celeste Macdonald. iPhone pic by Bobby Townsend
Bobbysix.com was lucky enough to attend Florence + The Machine's show in Sydney recently. The above photo, by the way, was stolen (with a loving kiss) from our good friend Daniel Boud's website. Check out his work. The man is a genius. Anyway, here's our review:
A music lover witnesses countless gigs in their lifetime. Some bad, some average, some great, but only very occasionally are you able to be part of something truly special and unique. Florence + The Machine's only Australian appearance, as part of the Debit Mastercard Priceless Music series, was one such instance. The Seymour Centre was the perfect venue. With just 12 rows of seats (each holding a Venetian-style masquerade mask to be worn during the show), it was incredibly intimate and had a theatrical feel perfectly suited to the performance.
Florence Welch, resplendent and regal in a sequinned gown, glided to centre-front and opened the proceedings with Only If For A Night. Supported by three backing singers, harp, keys, guitars and two drummers, Welch wasted no time in showcasing her extraordinary vocal ability. The quiet-loud-quiet-louder-quiet-MASSIVE dynamic of her songs combined with gothic lyrics drenched in emotion left the crowd, who – due to the amphitheatre layout – were pretty much on top of her, absolutely awestruck. Tiptoeing the floor barefoot, spinning in circles and gesticulating elegantly, she performed her new album almost in its entirety, along with favourites such as Dog Days Are Over and Cosmic Love, in which the harp was beautifully precise. By the time she ended with Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) and Spectrum, the audience had long-since been on their feet.
After the two-song encore was brought to a fittingly epic end with No Light, No Light, attendees reluctantly made their way to the exit in the knowledge that they had been lucky enough to be part of something genuinely beautiful. Indeed, so magical was the atmosphere in room during this perfect occasion that to step back into the real world felt painfully mundane. This was a wonderful and unforgettable night.
This review first appeared in Sydney's Drum
Media. It was written by Bobby Townsend and edited by Heidi Pett.
Produced by Paul Epworth, Ceremonials follows Florence Welch's double-platinum debut, Lungs, and was recorded with her full band over five weeks in the English summer at Abbey Road's legendary Studio 3.
The most striking thing about Ceremonials is that, in feeling like a natural progression from the eclectic first long-player, it is also clearly more cohesive and is massive in its ambition. After opener, Only If For A Night, combines harps, big beats and layered synths with her deliciously gothic lyrics, second song, Shake It Out – which has been getting heavy radio-play – sees Welch let loose her epic vocal. The classic Florence & The Machine quiet verse/abso-bloody-lutely massive chorus dynamic is something that, just like on Lungs, is evident throughout Ceremonials. Indeed, the gospel of Lover to Lover demonstrates Welch's trademark howl at its most lung-busting and is perhaps the best example of why the singer has described this album as her “incorrigible maximalism.”
This is a huge-sounding record.
Even when things are moderately pared back, it is only a matter of time before they build into something much bigger. The piano-led opening of Never Let Me Go, for example, soon makes way for an unabashed power-ballad and is perhaps the song that is most reminiscent of her first album. Meanwhile, No Light, No Light sees Florence and her machine throw everything, including some In The Air Tonight-style drums, at the listener.
Taking the best elements of her debut and striding forward, this is a very strong sophomore record indeed. The expansive art-pop of Ceremonials exudes impressive confidence from a woman on top of her game, while retaining enough of a dark edge to keep it interesting.
Review by Bobby Townsend. It first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.
“There have been so many bizarre moments,” flame-haired songstress Florence Welch laughs as she recalls the whirlwind that has been the last couple of years of her life. To illustrate this, she recounts her appearance at this year's Met Ball in New York. “Coming out of the Temple of Dendur with bleached eyebrows dressed as David Bowie, doing some sort of strange jig with Paul McCartney and then spinning around next to Madonna was one of those moments where it was like, 'My life has become irrevocably weird and I doubt it will ever get back to normal.'”
Indeed, from winning the Critics' Choice Award at the 2009 Brits before she had released an album, to her debut record Lungs receiving worldwide acclaim and selling by the bucket-load, to recently having been cited as an influence by none other than Beyonce, it's fair to say that things have been pretty surreal for Florence Welch since she burst onto the scene. Forever in the media spotlight and with an army of fans hungry for new material, one might think that the English singer/songwriter would have been under a huge amount of pressure to deliver the goods with her new long-player, Ceremonials. In fact, compared to her first album, the opposite was true.
“I didn't really think about it. I was just happy to be writing,” the charmingly polite and well-spoken 25-year-old explains. “The pressure I was under, writing the first record after winning that Critics' Choice Award and still being at such a raw stage, was so intense. I'd say it was almost a negative thing because it really put me under a microscope before I had anything to be protected by. People really went for how I looked or my personality because that was the only thing that was there. There was no album, and to be picked apart like that before you have any music to stand by is terrifying. It was a baptism of fire. I'm really grateful for having got that award; it was a great opportunity and it really helped me in the long-run, but at that point it was pretty hard to see the benefits because I was just freaking out the whole time. This time round, with a clearer idea of what I was doing, it was almost easier.”
Working once again with award-winning producer Paul Epworth (who also co-wrote and produced Lungs) and Isabella 'Machine' Summers (songwriter and member of the band), Welch recorded Ceremonials with her group over five weeks in the English summertime at Abbey Road's legendary Studio Three. The result certainly doesn't sound like something that was created under an especially heavy weight of expectation. “I was really lucky because I was working with some amazing people. Working with Paul and Isa, we have such such a musical connection. They had all these amazing drum patterns that I could get excited by and Paul would have these great chords. They made it easy to get back into the swing of things. We'd been speaking about it for a year and I had a really clear idea of what I wanted: big drum sounds, big bass sounds, big choral sweeps. When we got back into the studio, everyone was just excited to be there.”
To call the record 'big' is an understatement. This album is unapologetically huge. Massive. With layered instrumentation and Welch's trademark howl, it is an impressively bold and expansive second-coming. “I think you can't help being incorrigibly yourself,” she explains. “I've always been interested in big drum sounds and I'm drawn to big orchestral sounds. I'm obsessed with this choral thing. I'm interested in hymnal music and Georgian choirs. It's like heaven and hell in one.”
Aside from its enormity, the other noticeable thing about the new album is that it is much more cohesive than her debut offering. “I'm really glad you said that,” Welch beams when Drum brings up the notion that, if the excellent Lungs was an eclectic collection of songs, Ceremonials is a progression in that it sounds very well-rounded. “That's what I was aiming for. It was really important to me that it had a cohesive, overarching sound and it didn't fluctuate from one song to the next. For better or for worse, the first album was always going to be an experiment. I'd been through a lot of musical phases from the age of 17 and 22, so it was an overview of that period. This one, because it was a shorter period of time, with one producer [Paul Epworth] and one place, was more just a body of work. A story, I guess, rather than a scrapbook.”
A lengthy worldwide tour is scheduled to promote the record and, when she takes to the stage each night, there are bound to be plenty of fans drooling almost as much at her chosen outfit as they are her music. It's fair to say that Florence Welch is nearly as well-known for being a fashion icon as she is for her incredible voice, and can be seen within the pages of the monthly glossies as much as in the music press. “As a performer, what you wear is such a huge tool. It affects the way you feel and the way you move. It's like thinking of it in terms of an art piece or a dance piece.” However, her image isn't a contrivance, created by some record company executive. She has enjoyed dressing up since she was a child and, even before fashion designers were swooning over her, she put a huge amount of thought and effort into her onstage attire. “When we first started playing, we'd be given ten pounds for food and I'd spend it in a charity shop or a vintage shop and create these Frankenstein outfits: bits of feathers, lace, a red riding hood cape and glitter all over my face. So to be embraced by the world of high-fashion, for a girl who loved dressing up and was constantly in the fancy dress box, is an absolute dream.”
With her aesthetic sensibilities an extension of her natural desire to constantly be creative, Florence Welch is not the kind of person to let the dust settle and, even though her new album has only just hit the shelves, it inevitably won't be long until she begins to think about the shape that record number three will take. Feeling that she has honed her distinctive sound with Ceremonials, the question now is, where does she go next, sonically? She ponders for a moment. “I'm thinking either more orchestral or minimal... Take it as big as I can, or go small. I don't know.” She pauses, before joking, “Maybe minimal orchestral.”
Whichever musical direction Florence Welch takes in the future, if she walks the road with the confidence and gusto that she has displayed on the fantastic Ceremonials, then the world will surely remain her oyster.
Interview and live photo by Bobby Townsend. An extended version first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media. Edited by Heidi Pett.
Having won the Critics’ Choice Award at The Brit Awards and the coveted BBC Sound Of 2010 poll, it is little wonder that Ellie Goulding’s debut arrives under a hefty weight of expectation.
At the heart of Lights is a really promising songwriter. The album may land on the poppy side of folktronica, but there is emotional depth to Goulding’s themes. When you peel away the shimmering production, her vocal has a pleasingly elfin vulnerability to it; at times coming across like Julia Stone, elsewhere Bjork. Album-closer Salt Skin shows impressive invention with its mixture of electronica and a rousing choir in the chorus, opener Guns and Horses is a nice folk-pop introduction, while the breathless Wish I’d Stayed and the bold Under The Sheets give examples of her fine lyricism.
It’s a shame, then, that the overtly shiny production often makes things feel MOR, like The Writer, which buries a sweet ballad beneath radio-friendly cheese. Also, the fact that she is pulling in so many familiar directions makes Lights sound too much like the result of a record company’s mathematical equation: Florence divided by Laura Marling multiplied by La Roux plus Little Boots equals a new unit-shifting superstar. For a debut, Lights is more than decent, but something simply doesn’t ring true about its more poptastic parts. It leaves one wondering what Ellie Goulding would sound like were she not accompanied by the bells and whistles of the hype machine. One senses things would have been edgier and therefore a bit more satisfying. And therein lies the problem with the mainstream lauding an artist so highly at such an early stage in their career.
LANEWAY FESTIVAL
Sydney College Of The Arts
31/01/10
The venue may have changed, but the pleasant vibe that Sydney's most discerning festival crowd has created in previous years remained, and the SCA provided a pretty backdrop as Portland five-piece Hockey got festival-goers in the right mood with bucket-loads of infectious energy.
Philadelphia Grand Jury were their pleasingly chirpy selves and The Middle East's set featured some really strong moments, like Blood, which was Angus and Julia Stone meets Arcade Fire. While UK's Wild Beasts falsettoed their way through a faintly disappointing turn, the sassy and stylish Bridezilla (below) were simply divine. In a constantly impressive performance, Heart You Hold and Saint Francine in particular illustrated the combination of songwriting depth and enthralling stage dynamic that has become synonymous with Sydney's favourite quintet.
If The xx were overwhelmed by the crowd's fervour at their excellent display, then Mumford & Sons must have been pinching themselves at both the size and the reaction of their audience. “As a nation, you've embraced us more warmly than any other country, including our own,” singer Marcus Mumford gushed. Confident enough to throw away Hottest 100 winner Little Lion Man at the mid-point, the Brits' set may have lacked edge, but was nonetheless a nice mix of upbeat folk and quieter numbers.
Watching anti-folk legend Daniel Johnston (below) is never an entirely comfortable experience, and, dishevelled and singing from a lyric sheet, he cut a fragile figure. However, it didn't take long for his distinctive vocal and innocent yet melancholy lyrics to lodge themselves firmly in the hearts of fans well aware of his battles with the demons of his mind. When he sang: “That rock 'n' roll, it saved my soul,” it was a moment of unforgettable, unparalleled resonance.
As the food queues grew to ridiculous lengths at the back of the site, Sarah Blasko took people's minds off their rumbling bellies with a beautiful and immaculate performance, Echo and the Bunnymen offered up some hits with typical swagger and then Florence and The Machine (top and below) ripped through the headline slot with gusto. Backed by a band which included a harpist, Florence Welch - all long legs and red hair - prowled the stage as she belted out songs from her lauded debut album with an unbelievably stunning and powerful vocal. Her stage presence too was mesmerising. She bashed a drum, climbed atop amps and struck poses in front of an awestruck audience. By the time she ended with a winning trio of Dog Days Are Over, You've Got The Love and Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) - all of which showcased that lung-busting voice - she had the crowd going apeshit. She may only have one album to her name, but tonight proved that Florence is already a worthy headliner and well on the way to becoming an icon in her own right.
It's that time of year again where I revisit everything musical from 2009 and point my thumbs up or down. Here is my judgement on what was hot and what was not:
TOP TEN ALBUMS
1. Lungs - FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE You might think this is a surprising choice, but I was really impressed by the ambition and energy of Lungs with its piano, strings, harps, handclaps and massive drums, and the way Welch’s voice jumps seamlessly from a sultry whisper to an awesome, lung-busting chorus and back again. Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up), is the best example of her stunning vocal. Her delivery at the crescendo of this unapologetically grand pop anthem doesn’t so much ask for your attention as pick you up and fling you across the room. This album’s inventive juxtaposition of dark, gothic lyrics and rousing tunes blows away any burden of expectation with a flourish.
2. Em Are - I JEFFREY LEWIS It doesn't lose anything from being more polished than his ramshackle early efforts, and his storytelling is still up there with the best.
3. Conditions - THE TEMPER TRAP Considering how hard it was going to be to match their mesmeric live show, this debut is great, and filled with anthemic tunes.
4. The First Dance - BRIDEZILLA The First Dance is an album of intelligence, depth and genuine beauty, and Bridezilla’s ability to create intriguing and unique music to this high standard at such a tender age suggests that they have the wherewithal to go on to be one of Australia’s most cherished musical exports.
5. Dark Days/Light Years - SUPER FURRY ANIMALS Bouncing between beautiful, melodic pop and delightful insanity, Dark Days/Light Years is SFA’s best record since 2001’s Rings Around The World and is perfectly representative of a prolific body of work that makes them one of the most inventive and intriguing bands that Britain has ever produced.
6. It Walks Like Love - LOENE CARMEN A truly outstanding record, and Loene Carmen's finest piece of work to date.
7. Waxing Gibbous - MALCOLM MIDDLETON Paradoxically sad and uplifting, this is an intelligent, fragile and really lovely record that finds beauty in the bleakest places.
8. Dance Mother - TELEPATHE Because of the avant-garde approach to song structures and sound, initially it all seems a little disorientating but everything soon starts to make sense. Equally atmospheric, serious, intelligent, confusing and challenging, Dance Mother is a visionary and intriguing album, and how often can you say that nowadays?
9. Far - REGINA SPEKTOR Regina Spektor remains a wonderfully weird treasure, even if her edges seem to be getting smoother.
10. Kings & Queens - JAMIE T All the fun, madness and Englishness of a night’s binge-drinking. Only with Kings & Queens you don’t suffer a hangover and you want to do the whole thing all over again as soon as you’re finished.
TOP TEN SONGS
1. Sweet Disposition - THE TEMPER TRAP
2. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) - FLORENCE AND THE MACHINE
3. Broken Broken Broken Heart - JEFFREY LEWIS
4. Daniel - BAT FOR LASHES
5. The Fear - LILY ALLEN
6. Emily's Heart - JAMIE T
7. And The Boys - ANGUS & JULIA STONE
8. Lying Around - CASSETTE KIDS
9. Ballad Of Fuck All - MALCOLM MIDDLETON
10. Inaugural Trams - SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
TOP TEN ARTISTS OF THE YEAR
1. The Temper Trap 2. Friendly Fires 3. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis 4. Florence and the Machine 5. Jeffrey Lewis 6. Bridezilla 7. The Cribs 8. Kirin J. Callinan 9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs 10. Sarah Blasko
TOP TEN GIGS
1. Kitty, Daisy & Lewis, Manning Bar, Sydney
It’s not an exaggeration to say it was one of the most amazing gigs I've ever seen and to attempt to sum it up with mere words seems strangely futile. Superlatives have yet to be invented for how great this was, but the guy in front of me said it succinctly enough in a text message that he sent mid-gig. It simply read: “This is the coolest thing I have ever seen.”
1. (Joint first place because I couldn't decide between the two), Camille, Sydney Recital Hall The crowd, who started the night reserved and reluctant to embrace the singalongs, demanded three encores, which included Ta Douleur and a cover of Yes We Can Can. I'd be happy if Camille was still encoring now, as the experimental 90-minute show was moving, funny, intriguing, mesmerising and a triumph for innovation and vivid imagination. Absolutely mind-blowing.
3. Jeffrey Lewis, La Maronquinerie, Paris Not only can he pen evocative lines, but he knows exactly how to put on a live show. The gig had pensive moments, laugh-out-loud humour and sweat-drenched punk magnificence.
4. Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, Latitude Festival It's safe to say he blew every other performance at Latitude 2009 out of the water. The sound that emanated from the stage from the first moment to the last was an absolute aural attack
5. Kimya Dawson, Komedia, Brighton Typical of Kimya, she played until the venue basically kicked her off stage long after the curfew had passed. 6. The Streets, The Forum, Entertainment Quarter, Sydney Regardless of the general lack of diversity or of how relevant The Streets remain in 2009, the night was really all about Skinner’s interaction with the crowd. He made the gig fun. Proper fun.
7. Jamie T, The Metro, Sydney If You Got The Money almost ripped the roof off and every word of Sheila was roared back at the stage. By the evening’s finale, Sticks ‘n’ Stones, the crowd was going absolutely mental.
8. Bridezilla, The Hopetoun, Sydney It seemed obvious to everyone in attendance that Bridezilla's time is almost here.
9. The Temper Trap, Magnet, Berlin A typically tighter-than-a-duck's-bumhole performance.
10. The Pretenders, Latitude Festival Chrissie Hynde owned the entire field. I'll Stand By You and Bob Dylan's Forever Young were particularly memorable.
TOP FIVE PODCASTS 1. The Ricky Gervais Audiobooks 2. The Adam and Joe Podcast 3. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Review Podcast 4. The Guardian Football Weekly 5. The Jon Richardson Podcast
TOP TEN FILMS
1. Anvil! The Story Of Anvil
As well as being laugh-out-loud funny, this film made me cry more than once and was as touching a love story (obviously in a slightly unconventional sense) as I've ever seen.
2. Let The Right One In A beautiful and fragile story that raised the bar for vampire movies.
3. Moon It drew an extraordinary performance from Sam Rockwell and dealt with its themes of mortality and false reality really intelligently and subtly.
4. District 9 For a political (its message is incredibly thinly-veiled) sci-fi thriller with a brain in its head, then District 9 takes some beating. Funny, thought-provoking and with audience loyalties constantly shifting, this film had me gawping at the screen in wonder.
5. Paranormal Activity Unbearably tense throughout and clever in its use of normality to produce well-contextualised fear.
6. Where The Wild Things Are I don't think it could have evoked children's excitement, imagination, confusion and fear any better.
7. Zombieland In the vein of Shaun of The Dead, Zombieland is a genuinely funny movie, made with a love for the genre that ensures it never becomes a pastiche. Real fun stuff and one of the surprise hits of the year.
8. Gran Torino Clint Eastwood's film-making continues to be intelligent and methodical.
9. Star Trek Cracking sci-fi action which won me over even though I grew up very much on the Star Wars side of the fence.
10. Of Time And The City Marvellous documentary about growing up in Liverpool.
THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED) Lady GaGa. Not fit to lace Madonna's corset.
QUOTE OF THE YEAR “To those who did not believe in us - and ladies forgive me - they can suck it and keep on sucking it.” Diego Maradona isn’t especially magnanimous towards his critics after Argentina eventually scraped through to the world cup finals.
PREDICTION FOR 2010 Angus & Julia Stone's new album to be universally adored.
HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR I thought that singing an acoustic version of Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise onstage at The Latitude Festival with The Late Greats was pretty much the highlight of my entire life until, just ten days from the end of the year, I got to hang out with Superhans from Peep Show at a friend's birthday party. Best night ever.
Florence and the Machine is the name on everyone’s lips in the UK at the moment. Florence Welch - to use her real name - won the Critic’s Choice award at this year’s Brit Awards before she had even released an album, she is already a style icon as comfortable on the pages of fashion glossies as in the NME, and Lungs was recently nominated for the much-coveted Mercury Music Prize. The burning issue, of course, amid such hype and fanfare, is whether her debut long-player is actually any good.
Lungs is certainly ambitious in its indie/pop/soul sound, with piano, strings, harps, handclaps and massive drums, but it is Welch’s voice that is the most impressive instrument, jumping seamlessly from a sultry whisper to an awesome, lung-busting chorus and back again. Radio favourite, Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up), is the best example of her stunning vocal. Her delivery at the crescendo of this unapologetically grand pop anthem doesn’t so much ask for your attention as pick you up and fling you across the room. It’s thrilling stuff and indicative of the album’s multilayered barrage of sound.
Elsewhere, her voice floats over delicate harp on I’m Not Calling You a Liar, while Cosmic Love is a bit Bat For Lashes and Kiss With A Fist offers bouncy White Stripes blues. Wrapping up with a cover of The Source’s You’ve Got The Love, this album’s inventive juxtaposition of dark, gothic lyrics and rousing tunes blows away any burden of expectation with a flourish. Happily, Lungs is unquestionably worthy of the hype.
