Florence and the Machine Live Nottingham

We all hopped into Martha the white micra to travel cross country to witness the glorious Florence Welsh at Nottingham Trent arena. Buzzing off £4 a pint Carlsberg we elbowed our way through the eager crowd and found a spot near the front.

Supporting were The Horrors, the 5 gothic lads; filled with endless amount of swag, opened the night lead by singer Faris Badwan with tracks from their latest album skying.

Florence and the Machine put on a theatrical storm as she screams her way through a 2 hour set. The red haired vixen appears in what can only be described as a lace cat suit hugged by a studded medieval cape stunning her audience with pretty Melody's about flesh, blood and distilled love.

The gothic undertones spread a hypnotic energy leaving her fans in owe as she forces that undefined voice out of her skinny frame, we were all singing along with tracts from her latest album but everyone was waiting for that one song 'dog days are over' that blew the arena open and got the crowd jumping. 

She is no doubt incredible live and I cant wait to see Flo at Bestival, just as the crowd is getting lary and the sun is setting where her audience are intoxicated, dressed head to toe in Indian fancy dress, sounds perfect.

Well apart form the gig all I can say is that the ride home was quite thrilling, from my crazy, hooligan  friend stealing  a dropped merch T-shirt (american football style) from the damp cobbles of Nottingham streets, to us  running for our lives to the car, where we found a scream mask chilling in the neighbours  car over the head rest, with a yellow high-vise vest around the seat. We literally pooped.

6/10  (sit, not worth standing for) (p.s. lonely scream masks arn't funny) 

The Maccabees

19th of march: we took to the traffic and spent a deleterious 2 hours stuck in deadlock on the A1 in a pathetic search for the Cambridge Corn Exchange. With slight entertainment from passing cars and Apple Siri we sat hopeless in discontent that we would miss The Maccabees play there sold our gig in front of over clothed indi kids and topless,overweight, middle aged men.
After traffic begin to unlock we sped our way through the ring roads passing endless amounts of educated students and noodle bars until we parked and ran frantically through the door like it was the finish line to a hefty Marathon. We missed the support act; Le Shark, but the vibes from fellow music lovers was far from complementary. We shuffled our way to a comfy spot, and then it began...

Opening with hits from there upcoming album the Maccabees fell into an overload of cheers,screams and guitars that buckled every listeners knees as they bent down at the feet of Orlando and kissed the dirty floor of this sweat filled room. Flying elbows from eager moshers broke the presumption that you cannot dance to the soothing tones of songs like 'Child' and moshed there way through the disorganized perfection of their album. Hugo lifted and smiled as he took in the applause of his cult like revolt, feeding the audience enough to keep them wanting more. With echoing chants from the audience, the band say there good buy as the riot of there leaving builds into an own grown sea of hands waving effortlessly to the encore of 'Grew up at Midnight.' Then we reluctantly had to leave.

8/10 (Stand or cry when you see others having more fun than you.)