The first support act came in the form of Josh Record. A spritely man who sang songs with some of the deepest passion you'll ever be able to see. We'd definitely heard of his name before, but after his set last night, there was no way that we'd be forgetting it. There's no way of defining Josh Record except that he was the perfect match for such a headliner, and that the names Ben Howard, and Fleet Foxes came to mind time and time again. Our only quarry, genuinely, was that his set didn't last longer, and the fact that he wasn't the second support, just before London Grammar themselves. It was, in short, beautiful.
Sivu came up second and, whilst we were still in awe of Josh Record, it seemed that he just couldn't compete. Don't get us wrong, there was absolutely no faulting his talent, his vocal, or his band ... but it seemed that, against the vocal that Josh managed to give, and the harmonising that came alongside it, this was a little bland in comparison and, if it were first on the set time list, we think we would have cared for him much, much more. We couldn't quite make out one name to compare his vocal to, but several came up and that suggested that he was somewhat generic and, whilst there were many instruments playing and a lot going on, it didn't feel quite like it carried much feeling and, for that reason, we do wish that Sivu and his band, though very talented, were at the beginning of the setlist of the night.
London Grammar took to the stage in quite the unfashionable manner, but to an array of screams and cheers ... the immediate reaction was that you knew that this was a group of people with an absolute adoration for such a beautiful band. They played quickly, with a demeanour which portrayed humbleness and tranquility.It took quite some time for the interaction with the audience to begin and, someone in the audience which everyone had seemingly noticed, began it all. He shouted, whilst topless, that he loved Hannah, and that he wanted to marry her. Her embarrassment was very clear, but she took it in her stride and continued on with the set after making some hearty jokes.
That was the thing, nothing took them from their stride. A cameraman who wasn't meant to be there was ushered off, marriage proposals, screams and shouts, all chucked their way, and every single song played was as beautiful, if not better, than the album we all loved. At each and every time she sung, a sigh of awe swept over the audience and, whilst we really don't want to take anything away from neither Daniel, nor Dot, but Miss Reid truly took the show by storm and managed to sing utterly stunningly across the mesmerising music which each musician played. Dot's harmonies were always on point too and, whilst Daniel was seemingly the more shy of the group, he still managed to get involved with the audience and, in all, it really showed that, whilst they haven't let the fame go to their head, their talent is incredible and well and truly worthy of selling out the likes of the O2 arena ... we look forward to hearing when their date will be there.
Paul.
