I just want to say that I don’t think my review of the gig below actually shows you how amazing this gig was. Unless you were there, I don’t know if you’ll be able to understand just how special this night was. To see a singer you love/adore be overwhelmed by the love of her fans is just beautiful. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the last gig of the year that I’m going to…and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather see 🙂

Before I tell you how amazing Florence + The Machine were, I must say that the support acts were once again, brilliant. Frankie And The Heartstrings and The Temper Trap were rather bloody good. However, I still stand by The xx being the best support act Florence has had (and will have…but that could be because I am in love with The xx)

The Apollo in Manchester is a venue that in the past I have disliked. I don’t know why, but I really didn’t like it. Obviously my opinion changed after seeing Florence + The Machine there.

In May I saw Florence play a venue that held around 200 people. In September I’d say around  2500 and now in December there was just over 3000. It is common knowledge that I’ve been a huge Florence fan since seeing a video of her with Dev (Lightspeed Champion) back in 2007. So seeing her go from playing to a few hundred to a few thousand makes me feel like some kind of proud parent.

The crowd is made up of friends, lovers and parents. In front of us there was a young boy with his mum. They were singing and dancing to every song, it was truly beautiful.

The set opened with My Boy Builds Coffins, and after a few tracks in Florence said they would be playing some B-Sides. The nerdy fan in me went into some kind of seizure (internally) and hoped for Hardest Of The Hearts and Falling to be played.

Both were played, thus sending me into some kind of trance. I’m lucky that my best friend (who goes to Flo gigs with me) understands my love for the band. To Florence’s surprise everyone sang along to Falling which made her cry on stage. What’s so beautiful about Florence is that she still doesn’t see how well loved she is and how much us fans adore her. I still stand by Florence having the most wonderful fans ever, if I do say so myself!

I’m Not Calling You A Liar was played acoustically and those who have seen this live will know exactly what part of the song causes the crowd for a better word, to go rather apeshit. She hits a certain note that just leaves you stood there with your mouth open. In awe of what you are in the presence of.

For me, as always, Cosmic Love and Blinding were a personal favourite. I will confess now that I bawled when they played You’ve Got The Love. I’m still trying to work out why, but I think it was seeing 3000 people sing this as loudly as they could with their arms around each other.

The keyboard solo in Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) always covers me in goose bumps and makes me want to learn the piano.

During Dog Days Are Over, Florence decided to go for a bit of a climb. It did result in her hitting her head on one of the speakers. I’m pretty sure the crowd were expecting her to stage dive!

I know that I’ve said this after every time I’ve seen them but this was the best gig of hers I’ve been to (so far!) The venue was perfect and the crowd were amazing.

I’ve been to quite a few gigs and I’ve never seen a crowd react like this to a band before, Florence fans- you are the best!