Raising it up: Florence Welch at T in the Park 2010 Pic: © Drew Farrell
The black-clad backing band take to the stage, ominous synth stabs heralding Florence's arrival on stage - in gold hotpants with a lacy dress flowing over the top. (Which is questionable festival wear, I'd have reckoned...) Though the daylight and festival setting initially dulls the theatrics, there's no doubt that the slighty spooky and more than a bit kooky Ms Welch knows how to make an impression.
There's also no doubting that the Radio 1/NME Stage has a packed audience in front of it, which means it's a physical impossibly to be more than five feet away from a gruesome gang of boisterous plebiscites. Hey ho!
But to her credit Florence knows to harness this power, using a drumstick to conduct wide choruses of cheers before the band launches into Drumming Song, then corralling the crowd into delivering some disarmingly delicate 'oohs'. How very sweet of her! It seems for a second as though she’s leading a church choir rather than a massive T in the Park crowd.
It seems almost a bit insulting that the biggest reception is afforded for her cover of You’ve Got The Love, which inspires a whole phalanx of females to perch upon their partners’ shoulders despite being a bit pedestrian in comparison to the rest of her material.
PHOTO GALLERY
But from then on Florence has the audience in the palm of her hands, keeping the momentum rolling with a rousing Dog Days Are Over, which stays on track even when the singer stops in her tracks to take a gander at the Black Eyed Peas set-list, subsequently prolonging the middle section and leading revellers into a mass pogo to finish the song.
Good gracious, and that’s all before the band finish up with a rambunctious Kiss With a Fist and a punchy Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up), these singles already sounding like classics of their time. After only one album Florence and the Machine is already an act easily worthy of their second-tier headlining appearance at T in the Park, which is pretty much a top slot in all but name. So where does Florence go from here, and who can possibly follow her after this sort of performance? (I’ll be darned if either of those answers can possibly involve the Black Eyed Peas...)
