It’s difficult to believe that this year’s Glastonbury festival marked the first occasion on which Florence and the Machine have headlined a major British festival; this fact is even harder to believe considering they were bumped up from a supporting slot after an unfortunate injury was sustained by a certain Foo Fighters front-man. It’s difficult to believe because in all of her live performances, including this one, the third of a four night run in North London, she exudes the confidence, personality and overall stage presence of someone who is meant to be headlining, and who undoubtedly will be for many years to come.
After a tantalising wait, and an even more torturous few minutes of eerie, high-pitched static mixed with foreboding, rumbling bass, the unmistakable, unmissable bright red of Florence Welch’s hair appears from within the crowd, much to their surprise and roars of appreciation and applause.
And immediately she sets off in classical Florence style, beginning the show with ‘What the Water Gave Me’ from her second studio album, Ceremonials. The rest of the set is chock-full of classics, each one drawing a louder noise from the crowd than the last, who drink it in and feed off Florence’s every word, echoing them back to her and turning the atmosphere positively electric. ‘Raise it Up’, during which she asks everyone to get on the shoulders of the person they’re with, ‘Dog Days are Over’, which features one of the most energetic crowd sing-alongs I’ve ever seen, and ‘How Big How Blue How Beautiful’, for which, in honour of London’s not-so-temperate climate, the title was temporarily changed to include our consistently gun-metal sky, making it ‘Grey’ instead of ‘Blue’, are some of the highlights of the set, as well as ‘What Kind of Man’, whose pounding drums and guitar, it’s quite possible to imagine, could be felt in the chests of everyone in the room.
In her classic Florence style, she spends the rest of the night twirling, spinning and strutting all over the stage, feeding off the crowd and providing them, and the photographers down below, a bit of extra excitement when she hops up onto the parapets on either side of the stage, and even temporarily steals an awestruck audience member’s hairband to wear during the end of a song.
Underneath all the antics though, Florence still shines as brightly as ever onstage. With 2015 and the release of How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful marking the end of the band’s hiatus, the audience squeezed into the hall inside Alexandra Palace certainly seems glad to see them back. And as she sashays, sparkles, skips and sings her way through the night, it’s safe to say Florence is putting on as good a show as ever.
Check out Patrick Gunning’s photos from the show here
Words by Ben Kitto