Tuesday 22 September 2015

I'M GONNA BE FREE AND I'M GONNA BE FINE



Tonight I have been reborn, and the fire in my soul has been reignited.

I didn't know how much I needed this night until the moment my flame haired queen bounces on stage and softly sings the first lines of What the water gave me. My eye's welled up and my throat does that thing where it tightens up and you can feel the lump right at the back, and you just know, that at any given moment you could burst. Sometimes you don't even know you need saving until it's happened.

I start to wonder if I'm at all being over dramatic, is this my because I got my period this morning, or something to do with the two pints of cider I just necked in the space of 25 minutes. Then I turn to my left, and see another girl, whom you might not have guessed was a Flo fan at first glances,  subtly wiping teardrops from her face. It's not just me or my hormones, Florence Welch is a magical princess and a force of nature.

..and it's hard to dance with the devil on your back. We're three songs in, and she's already hit me with 'Shake it Out', arguably the greatest FATM song, imo. Because isn't that just what we all need to do on a saturday night after a really long and hard week working for the man, we all just need to shake it out, let go of our worries, regrets and forget all the negativity that surrounds our day to day lives. That's why I love live music so much, for two hours or so, you're completely taken away from all that and nothing else matters but the music.
And just like that, the tears are back in my eyes, and I can't even howl along anymore because I will break.

As we are introduced to Rabbit Heart, Florence actively encourages us all to embrace one another, and demands that we all get as high as we can by climbing on one anthers shoulders, an activity I am very familiar with as a 5'1 woman who's attended many a Glastonbury. However, I am slightly disheartened by the lack of support my boyfriend and two mates offer me to achieve Florence's requests, and I stay at 5'1 eye level through out the song. Although, I am nothing but pleased for the ladies and gents who have persuaded their friends, dates and potential strangers into balancing their bodies above their necks.

Inbetween belting out other worldly notes, Florence softly speaks to us, her audience. How does someone with such a sweet and gentle voice, sing with such a power. We're almost half way through at this point, "I wrote this song when I was falling in love with everyone and everything, and tonight I want to give it to all of you". Don't say things like that Florence, because I will cry. I'm not emotionally stable to handle all this love right now, I'm like a teenage girl at a One Direction concert.

As Flo and her equally lovely machine pelt through an array of songs new and old (cosmic love, mother, and spectrum) I down yet another pint of cider and black, as I become more and more intoxicated, my fellow audience members become more intoxicated by her songs. There's not a person around who isn't screaming along to SAY MY NAAAAAME, AS EVERY COLOUR ILLUMINATES, and then it hits me, we've been stood here well over an hour, there aren't many songs we haven't heard, this is it. This is end. Just like that, those instantly recognisable first chords of Dog Days begins, and I know exactly what's coming, Florence will take off an item of clothing, probably her top, and insist we do the same, a ritual that is symbolic of us letting go of our cares and worries. A topic that Florence has touched on plenty of times tonight, and I really, truly do feel free. I keep my clothes on throughout but it doesn't stop me and others around me jumping, dancing and shouting along to the final song. The dog days really feel like they're over at this point.



For weeks I have just been existing. The inevitable cycle of eat, sleep, work, repeat. It's not a bad thing, If we want to live well in this society, we all have to endure it some way. But it wasn't until now, that I realised how little I had felt alive recently. Truly alive. It sounds ridiculous when people claim that music saved their life, but when it grasps you so unexpectedly like this, how could it's power ever be denied.
I feel reborn tonight, and Florence gave me everything. I came out of the arena feeling alive again, and full of spirit I haven't felt in a very long time. Sometimes we all just need that something that gives us life again, and that's exactly what I got from Florence and the Machine tonight.


Chanel x


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