Willie J Healy
The night started with a gold old Glasgow crowd welcoming Willie J Healy to the stage. His set felt like a late-night bar playlist, but in the best way. He was effortlessly providing the audience with a jazz/funk feeling set, which the crowd happily grooved along to. He played his most popular singles such as ‘We Should Hang’, ‘For You’ and his new song from his most recent EP ‘Thank You’. I also noticed his warm and genuinely joyous attitude (even from the nosebleed seats we go last minute!) when on the stage creating a great atmosphere for both the crowd and for Florence to perform in.
Florence + The Machine
Nothing could have prepared me for the breathtakingly beautiful set that Florence and The Machine treated the audience to. Florence came out in a stunningly free looking blue dress, with hippy-esque feathered bell sleeves. A white bright light shone over the array of chandeliers trickling down from the ceiling above her, and danced over her throughout the set. The white light shone on the angel herself as she opened with ‘Heaven is Here’ from her Dance Fever album. The spiritual show covered Dance Fever mainly but she sang timeless hits including ‘What kind of man’, ‘Kiss with a Fist’, ‘Dog Days are Over’ and the crowd ate up every single one of them.
She created a welcoming and free aura in the arena and lit it up with her warmth. A particularly special moment was her performance of ‘Never Let Me Go’ which she admitted was hard to sing, hence its hiatus from set lists in around 10 years, but with the help from Glasgow she created a beautiful chorus sound with the audience, which echoed on for some time after she finished singing.
The fierce red head finished with ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)’ and had every single person in the arena moving in their own way. Fears of her being not being 100% due to her broken foot, which caused her tour dates to be postponed by 10 weeks, were quickly subsided when she grabbed 2 security men and her mic and ran straight into the standing section. Her vocals were nothing short of perfection, even with her running a lap of the arena. Having seen her twice now she has gone from strength to strength and there is no one that does what she does, she is simply perfection. We hope to see her back in Glasgow very soon!
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