Florence + The Machine debuted new music as they returned to the stage in Newcastle last night (April 15). Check out fan-shot footage and see the full setlist below.
The London band performed their first show since October 2019 at the 2,100-capacity O2 City Hall ahead of releasing their fifth studio album, ‘Dance Fever’, on May 13.
- READ MORE: Florence + The Machine celebrate a decade as a band at emotional BST Hyde Park show
Emerging in front of a theatre curtain that displayed a projected “F+TM” logo, the group opened with cathartic hit ‘Shake It Out’ before giving recent single ‘King’ its live debut. Next up, Welch halted ‘What Kind Of Man’ in its first verse after forgetting the lyrics.
“I think I lost some brain cells, but I’m trying,” she joked as the crowd cheered on in encouragement. “It’s been an intense couple of years. Am I fired? It’s just ‘The Machine’ now. I am actually still sober…”
Welch and co. later treated the Newcastle audience to the as-yet-unreleased ‘Dance Fever’ cuts ‘Free’ and ‘Girls Against God’, a reflective song in which the frontwoman sings of “crying into cereal at midnight“. She said: “It’s kind of about that [time] where I wasn’t sure if I would ever get to do this again.”
@florence And for a moment when I’m dancing I am free ?
♬ original sound – Florence
pic.twitter.com/iYyKDez2vb
— tom skinner (@TomSkinner_) April 16, 2022
She went on: “For me, singing and being here with you has always made me understand some sense of spirituality, or I understood the world… coming to concerts and seeing love. And in those years I wasn’t sure whether they would come back, I was very angry at God.
“I wrote a funny song about it cause I was like, ‘As if God cares that I’m mad!’ So it was kind of a song about that, and the artist ego versus the reality of your own complete insignificance.”
Welch continued: “Even to get to this show… there were so many moments where still this one show might not have happened.”
The singer addressed some absent members of her band (longtime keyboardist and co-writing partner Isabella Summers did not appear in tonight’s line-up), telling the crowd: “We’ve had some people go down, and people had to drop out. And we are sending them so much love.
“It’s incredible to be with you tonight because it almost didn’t happen.”
After dusting off ‘June’, ‘Hunger’ and Ship To Wreck’, Florence + The Machine performed ‘Ceremonials’ ballad ‘Never Let Me Go’ for the first time in almost 10 years. “I had a really strange relationship with it,” Welch explained.
“I had a lot of time to think – as many of us did – and I reassessed a lot of the old material. I think I rejected it because it symbolically seemed like so much pressure. And I think you being here and listening to the music for the last 10 years has changed everything.
“It used to symbolise a person under a huge amount of pressure. But every time I try to push a song away, you love it the most and you bring it back to me. I’m so grateful to you for that. Like the tide bringing it back to me, I wanted to give it back to you.”
Another old classic to re-emerge tonight was F+TM’s raucous 2008 debut single, ‘Kiss With A Fist’, which has rarely made it onto the setlist since the band’s early tours in support of their debut album, ‘Lungs’.
Elsewhere, the group gave ‘Heaven Is Here’ its very first outing and debuted ‘Dance Fever’ lead single ‘My Love’. Fan favourite ‘Dog Days Are Over’ followed, with Welch instructing people to “kindly – but I’m asking pretty firmly – put their phones away” to savour the moment.
Returning for the encore, the band aired ‘Cosmic Love’ and the dance-infused ‘Spectrum’. The latter performance saw Welch twirl LGBTQ+ rainbow flags that had been handed to her from the front row.
pic.twitter.com/Zm69yjYMgC
— tom skinner (@TomSkinner_) April 16, 2022
FLORENCE TOOK MY PRIDE FLAG AT NEWCASTLE??????????????? ? pic.twitter.com/6d3Fox1WSd
— alyx (@annika7shots) April 15, 2022
Florence + The Machine played:
‘Shake It Out’
‘King’
‘What Kind Of Man’
‘Kiss With A Fist’
‘Free’
‘Rabbit Heart’
‘Big God’
‘What The Water Gave Me’
‘Girls Against God’
‘June’
‘Hunger’
‘Ship To Wreck’
‘Never Let Me Go’
‘Heaven Is Here’
‘My Love’
‘Dog Days Are Over’
Encore:
‘Cosmic Love’
‘Spectrum’
Florence + The Machine will play at Blackburn’s King George’s Hall tonight (April 16) and London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane on Tuesday (19). The group are set to embark on a full UK and Ireland arena tour this November – any remaining tickets can be found here.
F+TM will also perform at a host of European festivals this summer, including Flow Festival, Øya Festival and Mad Cool Festival. You can see the full schedule below.
‘Dance Fever’ serves as the follow-up to 2018’s ‘High As Hope’, with Welch previously describing the album as “a fairytale in 14 songs”. It was co-produced by the singer alongside Jack Antonoff and Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley, the latter of whom recently remixed ‘My Love’.
Florence Welch this week unveiled the full tracklist for her upcoming LP, which also includes the songs ‘Choreomania’, ‘Back In Town’, ‘Dream Girl Evil’ and ‘Prayer Factory’.
Florence + Machine’s 2022 tour dates are as follows:
APRIL 2022
16 – Blackburn, King George’s
19 – London, Theatre Royal
29 – Los Angeles, CA – Los Angeles Theater
MAY 2022
6 – New York, NY – Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center
SEPTEMBER 2022
2 – Montreal, QC – Place Bell
3 – Toronto, ON – Budweiser Stage
7 – Chicago, IL – Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island
8 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
10 – Clarkson, MI – Pine Knob Music Theatre
12 – Washington, DC – Capital One Arena
14 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
16 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
20 – Ascend Amphitheater – Nashville, TN
21 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheater
23 – Orlando, FL – Amway Center
24 – Miami, FL – FTX Arena
27 – Austin, TX – Moody Center
28 – Irving, TX – The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
OCTOBER 2022
1 – Denver, CO – Ball Arena
4 – Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
6 – Seattle, WA – Climate Pledge Arena
7 – Portland, OR – Theater of the Clouds
9 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre
12 – Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre – San Diego, CA
14 – Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl
NOVEMBER 2022
14 – Accor Arena, Paris
16 – Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff
18 – The O2, London
19 – The O2, London
21 – BIC, Bournemouth
22 – AO Arena, Manchester
24 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham
25 – First Direct Arena, Leeds
27 – OVO Hydro, Glasgow
28 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
30 – Arena, Dublin
