The first support act came in Rag'N'Bone Man - a simple set up, consisting of only a vocalist, and a drummer. Our immediate response to this was that it would just not be enough to fill up the place but, we were well and truly proven wrong when the vocals came bursting out and the whole house erupted. The man was a singing phenomenon and, if it were not for his somewhat obvious consciousness whilst on stage, there is no doubts in our minds that he would be the next big thing in music. Song after song, he power-housed through and completely blew us away, to the point, in fact, that we simply had to research more on him after we'd heard. In the midst of the set, he welcomed on stage his 'brother' (we're unsure if this is biologically correct or not, but that was the term of phrase used), Stig Of The Dump. His stage presence completely changed the game and, in the few songs he was a part of, made the set whole. His rapping skills were beyond our comprehension and, honestly, this was a fantastic support act.
Second on were Clean Bandit. They began by allowing a violinist and a cello-ist (if that's the proper name), to play a small introduction, which was stupendous. Following that, two female singers came out and gave it their all, though, in our heads, despite every piece of the puzzle being sublime in technical ability ... they just didn't seem to fit.There's absolutely no way that we could sit here and write that Clean Bandit were or are bad. They are a collective of fantastic musicians, all incredible in their own fields. It was just that, to introduce the show with such a gracious effort, and then to mix house music, quite swiftly, alongside two women who seemed more dressed for a rap concert, rather than for an Indie act like Bastille, meant that our previous perceptions had come up a little trumped and disappointing.
This, though, is not to say that all of their music and all of their songs weren't to our taste. It took us a little while to get used to the act who, we believe, would be more suited to supporting Disclosure or Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs ... but with everything slowly but surely taking shape, by the end of their set, we had settled to the idea that, given the right location and headliner, we'd think they were great too.
Bastille scurried onto the stage whilst the screams and shrieks of the crowd backed them all of the way. Dan expressed how "weird" it was to be playing in such a venue ... and thus began the sincere, sensational, and extraordinary set.They went through a journey of all the songs we knew and love, going through mesmeric contrasts of light and shade to show off just how they like to do it. Songs like Bad Blood, These Streets, and Laura Palmer gust through the air with every single audience member screaming and singing alongside. Three new songs were displayed and, whilst with some bands, new tracks can come and go with no real impact, all of these tracks came across as potential singles and, the somewhat harsher use of sound was completely welcomed.
A surprise and very special guest performance came in the form of Ella Eyre (A TLB favourite) as she performed No Angels with Dan. This came as, for us, a particular highlight as it was, when we first heard their second free EP, our favorite track on it. She sang it with as much poise as we could ever have imagined and, the awe-inspiring duet really put into perspective how fantastic this night really had been. Dan finished the set by chucking himself into the crowd and, understandably, causing masses upon masses of people to become hysterical.
After all the commotion and song after song, they left the stage to an incredible uproar for more. Needless to say, they came back with an encore worthy of awards. Though it was relatively obvious that they would perform Of The Night and, indeed, Pompeii, we didn't expect to hear Home in such a beautiful way.
The emotion of it all was incredible and, we're yet to find Bastille doing something wrong.
Paul.
