Rory Beveridge
“Never listen to your mother,” is the advice Paloma Faith gave us during her mid-show anecdote. She credits her success with following this advice, and thank god she did, because her performance exhibited all of her raw talent. Her new album, ‘Infinite Things’ – the reason for the tour – was released last year, and was significantly changed and re-written due to the Covid-19 pandemic; “I wrote songs about what I could see” Faith tells us, citing her children and family life as inspiration for many tracks. It would seem then that her performance would be full of gloom and sadness, emotions so many of us have experienced over the past eighteen months. This could not be further from the truth. The show was exciting and energetic, loud, and unashamedly happy. Rory Beveridge shares his full thoughts…
The show opened with a large white sheet covering the stage, and shadowy figures moving sensually behind it. This peace was then shattered when the curtain came down, revealing a sequin-clad Faith, and her quirkily dressed band, belting out Last Night on Earth from her new album. You’d hardly believe that she was a trained dancer, though, by the way she moved around the stage, it was clunky and chaotic, but also felt intentional – because she knew everyone in the audience was doing the same thing. They came to hear her sing and have an awkward dance among strangers, something so many people have been starved of recently.
After several tracks from her recent album, she invited the audience to stand up and “rattle through” some of her classic songs. This section hit the perfect note, as it was clear that not many people were familiarised with the newer songs. The band and singers moved to the right of the stage, sat down next to Faith, now atop a piano, while she sung the sombre ballad Just Be from her second album, ‘Fall to Grace‘. This was a perfect intermission from the, so far, upbeat performances, while also demonstrating Faith’s impressive vocals.
Faith’s vocals stood out over the sound of the band and backing singers
After a round of fan favourites from her first, second, and third albums, Faith then told a story of how Prince demanded she sung with Chaka Khan at a festival she was performing at when she was younger, only for her to forget the words to Khan’s hit I’m Every Woman and aggressively ad lib over the soul legend’s song – this was met by laughter from the audience, promoting Faith to exclaim that “you would be all f*cking terrified too!!”. The point of this name-dropping was for her to sing the classic track she didn’t know so many years ago, which was her only cover of the set. This was a mesmerising performance, and Faith’s vocals stood out over the sound of the band and backing singers – it was certainly a highlight of the set.
She ended the show with one of her most famous hits, Only Love Can Hurt Like This, met by a suitably loud cacophony of singing from the audience. Faith proved that her timeless and unique talent, and ability to engage with the audience, is something to be marvelled at.
Rory Beveridge
In-article image courtesy of @palomaofaith via instagram.com. No changes made to this image.
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