Florence and the Machine - Cosmic Love Tour 2010, Blackpool

This being my third time seeing the red-headed machine, I knew to expect a memorable and epic performance and was certainly not disappointed. After finding out the line up before the gig I also eagerly anticipated the main support act’s performance -The Drums from New York, and they didn’t disappoint. Having been the first time seeing this band I didn’t know what to expect but they sounded just as good live as they do on their recordings – which is always a good sign!

Front woman Florence Welch, dressed all in white, started the show with ’Howl’ before blasting through ’My Boy Builds Coffins’, ’Girl With One Eye’ and ’Between Two Lungs’ in quick succession. The Southerner wowed the crowd with the power of her voice – and anyone seeing her for the first time will have been blown away by the sound of her live performance.


‘Drumming Song’ was received with a chorus of claps from the crowd, while ’Blinding’ featured Welch wearing a shawl over her head and lit by strobe lights – always the quirky individual. I felt slightly sorry for her when she stated that she was so happy to be performing under Blackpool Tower itself, when in actual fact she was slightly behind it and the whole crowd shouted back at her stating this.

The set design was the same as the previous tour; a floral backdrop and props of bouquets and bird cages littered the stage. The set list was also virtually the same, apart from a change of opening song and maybe a couple of others swopped around in the middle. Before leaving the stage in preparation for the encore she sang two of her biggest hits to date, ‘You’ve Got the Love’ (originally by Candi Station) and ‘Dog Days Are Over’. Both songs received a great reaction from the crowd. For Dog Days Florence had the crowd jump up and down from the chorus (“run fast for your mother” etc) and as this particular gig was situated in the Empress Ballroom the floors were springy and the crowd were bouncing all over the place!

For the encore Florence and her machine performed ‘Kiss With a Fist’ and ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up). It seemed to me that the night had flown by far too quickly, even though she had sang through the entire album and included new songs and songs not featured on the album itself – this was more than likely because everyone was entranced by her and her music that time seemed to whiz by unknowingly. After climbing on top of one of the huge speakers placed at the side of the stage to finish ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)’ she clambered down and left the stage after emotionally thanking the audience. At the previous gig in Manchester she got so emotional she was crying slightly as she did this, and stopped mid-song on the encore to watch the crowd singing back at her and her face was lit up (being her first major solo tour I’m guessing she didn’t expect such an awesome reaction).

I would recommend to anyone to go and see Florence and the Machine themselves as the album, although still sounding near perfect, doesn’t give justice to her live voice and performance when you’re actually there.