A good friend of mine once told me that listening to Bombay Bicycle Club‘s music was “what it felt like when you fall in love for the first time.” It is like when you go to a restaurant or a pub and you order the deluxe burger, and you’re waiting in hunger and agony until you finally see your waiter deliver it to your table, and when you lay your eyes upon your meal you hear the distant chords of a Bombay Bicycle Club song play in your head. Jokes! But really.
“Are you happy?” Jack Steadman, lead singer and frontman of Bombay Bicycle Club asks the packed crowd of Citadel Festival for his band’s co-headline slot on Sunday evening. With a short string of festival dates across Europe this summer, it has been eight months since Bombay Bicycle Club’s last London appearance, a triumphant performance at Earl’s Court that featured Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour. The North London band have been getting back onto the radar slowly, but arguably they never really disappeared from it. The sun has been kind this warm summer afternoon, basking East London’s Victoria Park in glorious sunshine and crisp, cloudless blue skies, ensuring a wonderfully music-filled day to all who attend. The thousands of sun-kissed fans yell back in unison in a hearty response to Steadman’s question, Bombay Bicycle Club’s infectious, soft melodic harmonies an inescapable formula to induce the crowd with.
The soaring, 70’s Bollywood-inspired ‘Overdone’ taken from their latest album, So Long, See You Tomorrow, opens the hour-long set, Steadman extending his arms out to the thousands as he utters the song’s chorus. It is swiftly followed by ‘It’s Alright Now’, the shoe-gaze influenced number from the same record with a rampant bass line countered with delicate lyrics and soft synths. The set takes heavily from the band’s most recent studio effort, with ‘Home By Now’ and ‘Luna’ as highlights; Liz Lawrence’s soft vocals in both songs are as angelic as ever, with the latter being one of the most crowd-rousing choruses of the evening.
Fun, jangly, shoegaze-pop number ‘Shuffle’ invites the first sing-along of the night, the perfect song for a summer soundtrack. Upbeat and addictive with quirky pianos and a vibe that simply radiates sunshine, the song puts the festival goers even deeper into Bombay Bicycle Club’s mesmerizing spell. ‘Lights Out Words Gone’, another song taken from the band’s third record, A Different Kind of Fix, is an ethereal, celestial performance that brings the absolute best of Jack Steadman’s and Liz Lawrence’s vocals, both voices overlapping and intertwining in as graceful a manner as ever. The lingering lyrics of the song, “When the lights go out and the words have gone / let me be the one to try it on,” resonate hauntingly, enticing goosebumps on arms despite the warm sun.
‘How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep’ is of an even more dreamlike quality when performed live and accompanied by stunning visual animations that adorn that stage screen, vibrant colours that go with each song beautifully. It is no coincidence that Steadman has a grin on his face whenever he is singing; whether it be intentional or not, it is a feeling of happiness and wonder that can only be inflicted by being blessed by Bombay Bicycle Club’s music. His grin is reflected upon the thousands singing Steadman’s own words back to him, as there is this magical, surreal, sometimes ghostly quality to their sound that fills you with such glowing warmth.
‘Evening/ Morning’ and ‘What If’ pay tribute to Bombay Bicycle Club’s dazzling debut album, the crowd chanting back “I am ready to owe you anything” with all the vigour they can muster. It is during these songs that banners of green and orange erupt from the stage over the audience to their ooh’s and aah’s, with guitarist Jamie MacColl jokingly stating, “that one was meant to be for us.” ‘Always Like This’ is a stellar number, both tender and dynamic, Steadman opening his heart wide for all the Victoria Park crowd to indulge in and absorb.
‘Carry Me’ is a defining, electric set-closer, one of the heaviest songs of Bombay’s discography. Electronic-influenced and an absolutely vigorous track, it is an incredibly explosive way to end a stellar set at Victoria Park. Steadman looks happy as ever on the stage, as do the rest of the band, themselves unable to be immune to their own music. Though hints of a new album don’t seem to be on the cards yet, these series of summer appearances might be signs of something wonderful to come not too far down the road. Knowing Bombay Bicycle Club, anything short of wonderful won’t be hard for them to grace the world with soon.
Words by Cady Siregar
Bombay Bicycle Club played:
Overdone
It’s Alright Now
Shuffle
Lights Out, Words Gone
Evening/Morning
What If
Whenever, Wherever
Home By Now
How Can You Swallow So Much Sleep
Feel
Luna
Always Like This
Carry Me