It was about this time last year that we were properly introduced to Gabrielle Aplin. More specifically, after a certain John Lewis selected her to provide the soundtrack to their Christmas advert, with her cover of ‘The Power of Love’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Since then she’s given us three more singles and a debut album, as well as supporting Ed Sheeran on his Australia and New Zealand tour AND now her own UK headline tour.
She took and interesting approach to selecting support acts for this tour. Jack Savoretti was chosen as support for the first seven dates of the tour and a band called Meadowlark for the final seven. An opening act for each show, however, was chosen by public vote. This meant that each of the 14 shows was opened by a different artist.
Jack Williams won the vote to open the Bournemouth O2 Academy show. Taking to the stage alone with just an acoustic guitar (and no shoes) he gave a great performance. With a sound reminiscent to that of Ed Sheeran, he really showed the audience what he could do. He will have gained a few more fans I’m sure, me being one of them.
Next up was Meadowlark, a three-piece band whose music is probably best described as Acoustic/Folk. After hearing a few tracks from them it was clear that they have managed to define their own unique sort of sound, but it could do with a little more punch at times. Having said that, their final song ‘I’ve Got You’ did offer a slightly faster tempo, and they even managed to get the crowd to clap along to the beat.
Gabrielle’s set was opened by her drummer, with an extended introduction to ‘Keep on Walking’, while the rest of the band took to the stage. This led straight in to ‘Panic Cord’ which received a warm welcome from the crowd. The first ‘big’ moment of the show came when she performed her cover of ‘The Power of Love’. For this she stood alone at the front of the stage in the spotlight with her microphone, while her band remained in darkness in the background. A truly beautiful performance.
After a few more tracks from the album her band left the stage, while she performed a few with her acoustic guitar. The first of these was the song ‘Start Again’ which was written for the TV shows ‘Skins’. During this song somebody in the crowd passed out and had been taken outside by the first aid team to get some air. Gabrielle noticed this from the stage and went outside to check on them herself once she’d finished the song, makes me wish I’d been the one who had passed out!
Once she had been outside to check on the unlucky/very lucky fan she returned to the stage to perform a further two songs acoustically; ‘Rings Round Roses’ and ‘Pouring Out’. Neither of which feature on her album ‘English Rain’. These acoustic performances really showed off how talented she is, with the ability to captivate and entire crowd with just her voice and a guitar.
The band returned to play a few more album tracks, which included ‘November’ and ‘Please Don’t Say You Love Me’. Gabrielle then took to her piano, with the spotlight on her, to perform her up-coming single ‘Salvation’.
Next up came something special. She gave us another cover, nothing like ‘The Power of Love’ though. It was, in fact, ‘Wrecking Ball’ by Miley Cyrus. Initially I was slightly concerned about this choice, but she completely proved me wrong. Her version of the song was incredible, maybe even better than the original if anything.
One song, ‘Evaporate’, followed this cover before the encore. Her encore was only two songs, but she had performed so many throughout the set. The first was ‘Wake Up’ and finally, she finished with ‘Home’ which was the perfect way to end the show.
Her entire performance was fantastic. The track listing was spot on and all of the music was played superbly by her and her band. Her voice sounded spectacular too, even better than how it does on record. The atmosphere created from the combination of songs and lighting worked excellently.
Overall; a brilliant show, great atmosphere and impeccable vocals.
Gabrielle Aplin – Home on MUZU.TV.
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