For a band with five number one albums Blossoms are a stickler for tradition. As they did a decade ago for their self-titled debut album, and every subsequent record, they headed home to Stockport Plaza to perform the new album, in case Songs From The Wedding Cake, in full accompanied by a few of their biggest hits to a fervent hometown crowd.
There's a real sense of anticipation by half past six as the curtain comes up after the intro taken from opening track Joke About Divorce's video and the expanded eight-piece Blossoms are lit in blue light that matches the backdrop of their latest record's sleeve. For the next forty minutes they take us through Songs From The Wedding Cake, dedicated to Stockport Town Hall where frontman Tom Ogden married his wife Katie, about whom most of the album was written.
As they've gone from Ritz to Coop Live level in the ten years since their debut, they've always come back to the Plaza and played the album in full - now it's a unique event as the other launch shows get five or six new album tracks and more old favourites, so these shows are the only time some of the album tracks will ever be played live.
Whilst the album has only been out a couple of weeks one scan round the lower tier of the Plaza suggests that it's been taken to the heart of Blossoms fans as much as everything that's gone before, people singing along to every word of the non-singles as much as they are the lead singles that kick off the record. Joke About Divorce, Husband and Meet Me In Love are a statement opening trio, Blossoms remaining true to their roots whilst heading further into classic pop territory, an area which they've shown an increasing mastery of as they've developed as a band. Influences worn on sleeves, lyrics that are personal but also universal and a canny knack for melody and harmonies that makes these songs feel timeless.
Songs From The Wedding Cake isn't just about the singles though, although Additional Driver's brilliant story of a traffic accident near the Apollo littered with lots of local references does make a claim to be the show-stealer. It's edged by the glorious Fall Into You that follows though, a song that captures everything about the band and distils it into what feels like a gloriously effortless three and a half minute song. Uma Thurman and The Deep End see them joined by Josh's dad Robin Dewhurst who contributed keyboard parts to the recorded versions.
Tom's on good form all evening, telling stories around the songs, the inspiration for The Kardashians being a hungover morning after a New Year's Eve night out in Japan, lamenting the post office moving into TG Jones and telling us he wrote a song called WH Smith, asking for anyone called Gary in the audience before the show's finale and playfully mocking some responses ("I believe you, because you are over forty"). It's clear now he's developed into a frontman capable of commanding the arenas into which they're heading in November.
They finish the show with four old favourites - finishing on the aforementioned Gary following the wonderful My Girlfriend and its pedal steel finale from Josh, the ecstatic There's A Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls and their breakthrough Charlemagne. But tonight was all about Songs From The Wedding Cake, another number one album to go with the previous four, and a band on top of their game a decade in.
________________________________
Follow Even The Stars on Twitter at @eventhestarsuk and like our Facebook page for all the latest updates
No comments:
Post a Comment