George Ezra performing his Staying At Tamara’s Tour at Rock City Nottingham on Monday 2nd April 2018.


Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

George Ezra was at Rock City last night to promote his latest album, Staying At Tamara’s, but judging by the reception that the songs got from this packed crowd, it needed no introduction. They had made sure that on its release it went straight to number one in the UK charts.

Just over four years ago Ezra was a little known name but with a voice that fills a room and an evident knack for storytelling, such as how he rented a room in Tamara’s house in Barcelona, he was never going to stay on the sidelines for long.

Coming onto the stage with his quality band to Quincey Jones’ Soul Bossa Nova (also used as the theme tune to the Austin Powers movies) the crowd went wild. He started with an old song Cassy O before he launched straight into new song Get Away which had the crowd singing along. The lovely Barcelona with its perfect vocals went down a treat.

But Ezra is all about his voice. Producing his belting vocals on the likes of new song Pretty Shining People he simply excelled. Listen To The Man was really infectious and Don’t Matter Now raised the noise levels even further with the brass section coming into its own.

Inevitably the crowd created chaos for his single Paradise whilst the delicate Song 6 sounded just beautiful. Fans favourite Shotgun finished the main set, which came far too early given that he had only played for an hour.

The encore saw him deliver Rudimental’s These Days and the elegant Leaving It Up To You before his charismatic performance ended with the song that made him, Budapest.

Ezra could so easily have been a one hit wonder, but his excellence as a vocalist, songwriter and musician ensures that he will most likely be playing arenas next time around.