After
three years since her last tour, British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor started
last night a new adventure in the U.K. as part of the promotion of her new and
self-published album Wanderlust, miles
away from her previous albums, leaving electronic music out.
The event took place at the Library
in the Birmingham Institute, a venue which holds up to 600 people. This was the
perfect setting for Ellis-Bextor’s new sound. And crowded to the full the show
began at 8:00pm with the supporting act, a dream pop band from Brighton called ‘UsBaby Bear Bones’, and after a half-an-hour show, this talented band retired to
leave the stage to the British singer.
Bextor bursted in stage along with
the musicians that also recorded the album: Gita and Rosie Langley as backing
vocalists/violinists, Seton Daunt at guitar, Sophie’s husband and member of
British band The Feeling, Richard Jones
at bass, Phill Wilkinson at drums and Ed Harcourt, who co-wrote the album, at keyboard.
The show started with the same song
the album does, Birth of an Empire, maybe as a metaphor of the singer starting
something new in all the senses. The song, with a strong sound of violin, was
followed by other new tunes from Wanderlust such as Until the Stars Collide or its second single of the album, Runaway Daydreamer, which allowed the English
singer to show her powerful vocals, sometimes hidden under remixes and electronic
sound.
In this first part of the show,
wearing a short red dress customised for her where Wanderlust could be read at
one side along with other symbols, she sang the songs from her new album,
giving the sensation to the audience that the album was in fact, playing. So
much vocal perfection and precision made everyone forget that it was indeed
live.
This more relaxed section also
included some old songs such as I Am Not
Good at Not Getting What I Want from her 2003 album Shoot from the Hip, and she surprised everyone when she decided to
bring back from the late 90’s a song by her former band theaudience called A Pessimistic Is Never Disappointed.
During
this first hour of great music she also had time to speak with the audience
about the concept of this new album and what it meant for her to break with a
big record label.
She
promised she would make us dance, and so the second part of the show began.
With her band playing an unrecognisable music, Sophie poped up again in stage,
now wearing a tunic-like green dress with sequins on the neckline, to sing a
non-stop mash-up of her old classics Take
Me Home, Groovejet, and Murder on the Dancefloor mixed with line
from 2001 hit Lady (Hear Me Tonight)
by the French house dou Modjo.
Presenting
her 2009 dance single Heartbreak (Make Me a Dancer) as her final performance,
the audience went crazy jumping and singing along.
When
everyone left the stage we were still there clapping for more, and so, Sophie
Ellis-Bextor accompanied by Ed Hartcourt carrying an acoustic guitar, performed
When the Storm Has Blown Over, only illuminated by a single spotlight in the
most tender moment of the evening.
It
was a totally worth it show, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, as usual, looked
stunning.
She
stayed for a while after the show to sign, and I quote, “whatever you want me
to sign”. And even when she got a guy from the audience asking if she would
sign his Victoria Beckham album, she said yes. This is how awesome Sophie
Ellis-Bextor is.
No comments:
Post a Comment