It’s been a mighty rise for South London boy Loyle Carner in the past year having sold out shows across the UK and Europe, playing huge festival slots at Latitude, Reading and Leeds and Glastonbury as well as scoring a prestigious Mercury Award nomination for his debut album Yesterday’s Gone, named after a song on his late fathers unreleased album, yet he still manages to have his feet firmly planted on the ground.
As he walks out to another sold out show, this time in Birmingham’s O2 Institute, his grin can be seen for miles. Jumping straight into his debut LP opener ‘The Isle of Arran’, Carner has the crowd immediately in the palm of his hand. However after only one song he provided us with further proof of how much of a down to earth likeable man the South London rapper is, by giving a beer to a person in the crowd who had spoken to Carner earlier on Twitter about having a bad week; it wasn’t a publicity stunt it was an obvious kind hearted gesture.
What we got from Carner there on was a set dripping in emotion with every syllable he spits as heartfelt as the last, ‘The Seamstress’ and especially ‘Sun of Jean’ which ends the rappers set; leaving the stage to a rapturous applause, are tracks that come from the bottom of Carners heart. The crowd aren’t just serenaded for the whole night however, ‘Stars and Shards’ has the crowd throwing themselves around the Institute, while ‘Damselfly’ has Carner curating the crowd for the chorus sing a long.
The night ends with the Londoner playing fan favourite ‘No CD’ which sees the biggest sing a long of the night, Carner has been developing his live craft and the set closer provided us with the proof of his progression. Confidence oozes from the rapper and for good reason, not only having one of the albums of the year but being a down earth guy sees Loyle Carner garnering more and more support. Theres no worries for this South London rapper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H39Q02EkNNA
Callum McCormack
@mccormackcallum