Recently, Brit Award winner Rag ‘n’ Bone Man performed at the O2 academy in Bournemouth. A surprisingly small venue for the hit artist, the academy was packed out from the floor to balconies with queues forming an hour before the show trailing up the high-street.
Although the O2 academy is a smaller venue the star’s powerful voice had the whole room singing along to his hits like any arena show. He performed tracks like ‘Human,’ ‘Giant’ and ‘Anywhere Away from Here,’ the hit collaboration which saw his backing singer Roo Savill take over Pink’s vocals creating a beautiful duet between the pair.
Following the release of his latest album ‘Life by Misadventure’ Rag ‘n’ Bone Man – birth name Rory Graham – opened with fan favourite ‘All you ever wanted,’ a song inspired by his childhood and places he grew up. The audience were immediately singing and dancing along, following two considerably more acoustic sets from the support acts Emily Burns ‘Is It Just Me? (Feat. JP Cooper)’ and Max White, two seemingly promising up and coming artists that helped build a positive and enthusiastic atmosphere.
When talking about playing old, unfamiliar songs like ‘Perfume’ from his 2015 EP ‘Disfigured,’ Rag ‘n’ Bone Man said: “I think if I just came and played the hits, we’d be here about six minutes.” The fact that some fans didn’t know the lyrics to some of these songs didn’t impact the atmosphere as they were just as happy to dance along.
Appearing almost in awe from the support of his audience, the star was extremely humble in between songs often smiling and cracking jokes before leading into the next track and always crediting his band and backing singers.
The singer-songwriter ended his set with ‘Giant,’ a collaboration with DJ Calvin Harris, one of the most upbeat songs of the evening which proved to be a hit with the audience, a perfect choice of song to end the evening and alongside the amazing vocals, lighting and stage set up helped to create the setting for an intimate performance which sent the audience home buzzing and was a great atmosphere to see a return to live gigs.