SharePaloma Faith and Liam Bailey performing at Sherwood Pines Nottinghamshire on Sunday 28th June 2015.
Images and Review by Kevin Cooper
It was a perfect summer’s evening which brought to an end a weekend of fabulous music at Sherwood Pines. Headlining the weekend was Paloma Faith, who fresh from her previous day’s appearance at Glastonbury, and with only three hours sleep, never faltered in her ability to entertain.
Opening for her was her good friend, local born Liam Bailey. Whilst appearing on stage a whole hour late, he was well worth waiting for. Working his way through a forty five minute set of groove filled, rib-thumping soul and blues, he quickly got this audience on side. Backed by just two guitarists, he opened with Breaking. Telling us that his set was from his latest album, Definitely Now; to be released later this month, this appreciative audience were already making a note of it.
Numbers such as Walking Out which he delivered sitting down behind his mic with his guitar, showed the intentions of the man to entertain, whilst Fool Boy and On My Mind saw him stomping around the stage as though he owned it.
A slower number, Summer Rain showed a softer side to the man whose first releases were on Amy Winehouse’s Lioness record label, but he seemed most in his element when he could get the crowd going. Upping the tempo with Crazy Situation, the too short set was brought to a close with Villain, which throbbed with a raw expressive energy that had the onlookers swaying throughout.
The audience had clearly enjoyed this set as much as Bailey had. Leaving the stage to the announcement “I’m a happy man. This show tonight is called the wank bank”, he had clearly loved the experience as much as this sell-out crowd had.
Having taken Glastonbury by storm, it was Paloma Faith that this packed crowd had come to see. She wows her audiences with her octane voice and whatever costume she has picked from her astonishing wardrobe. For tonight’s show she donned thigh high red leather boots and a sequinned ensemble of a multi coloured top and matching shorts. Opening with Take Me from her latest album, A Perfect Contradiction, it was easy to see why the demand for tickets was so high, as her soulful voice immediately lifted the crowd and continued to gain momentum as her set progressed.
Promising a different set to the one that she had performed on the ‘tele box’ the day before, she delivered tracks from her album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? There was the fantastic New York which had spiralled her into fame, and Stone Cold Sober felt like the swirling party that it depicts with her soaring vocals, the bands energetic horns and dynamic orchestration.
From her latest album there was The Bigger You Love, It’s The Not Knowing and Impossible Heart, whilst Ready For The Good Life was simply brilliant. There was her stand out cover of Jimmy Hendrix’s Purple Haze which had mesmerised the crowd the day before with her strong vocals and a brilliant supporting guitar performance. Trouble With My Baby had the crowd singing along whilst she brought the tempo down with her last song of the main set, the epic Picking Up The Pieces.
Promising to come back on for an encore, this bundle of fun had throughout kept up the banter with her audience, covering such topics as diverse as world peace and Toilet Duck. It was entertainment at its very best. Back on stage for the fabulously funky Can’t Rely On You, Paloma could not go without treating us to her heartbreak anthem, Only Love Can Hurt Like This, which was a spine tingling moment.
Not content to go out with a whimper, the last song of the night was her euphoric dance track, Changing, which meant that this sell-out crowd danced and sang their way back to their cars after an impressive ninety minutes of top quality tunes.
