FREYA RIDINGS // O2 ACADEMY, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE
Freya Ridings kicks off her UK Headline tour at Newcastle’s O2 Academy.
FREYA RIDINGS PERFORMING NEWCASTLE’S O2 ACADEMY - 11.11.2019
PICTURE BY: WILL GORMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
★★★★☆(4/5)
“Thank you so much to many of you coming out on a Monday night. Last time we played here there was a lot less people!” Since stepping on the scene in 2017 with her debut Blackout Freya’s rise on the music scene has gone from strength to strength and her music sure does the talking and the crowds get bigger and bigger.
Red lights and a lone cellist sets the mood for the night with a stage set of picket fences and lamp shades then that electric guitar strums and the beat of the drum gives the perfect entrance to Freya Ridings as the mood lifts with the upbeat Love Is Fire opens the night and Newcastle is alive for the first night of Freya’s headline tour.
Most of the night sees Freya placed by her piano with her mic full of diamonds. If that is not a statement I do not know what is! Her deep velvety vocals commands the lively crowd as the majority are still and silent throughout with the mobile phones coming out for the big hits and even a ‘lighters up’ moment with them during Unconditional as she takes centre stage with a guitar. I am not one for mobile phones during the whole show but this is the second time I have seen Freya live and for some reason the audience don’t seem to distract each other with their usage and are respectful of each other. There is just something about being in the same room as Freya Ridings that keeps everything calm and nice. It’s just the ambience she brings even through the darker songs such as her deliverance of Billie Eilish’s Bad Guy and then “rising from the ashes of heartbreak” with Castles.
Speaking of Castles, well it is a special moment in the opening with her and her backing singers. Let’s just say if the whole hour and 15mins or so was just an accapella set with Freya and her backing singers, they could walk away with an award. Although it is Freya that is centre stage she gives her band moments to shine; from the solo cellist opening and then when she strips it back and goes back to where it began for Blackout and Maps before she takes the stage for herself and back to the piano for Wishbone.
Ultraviolet gives us a very ‘rock feel’ performance in terms of deliverance and the lights on full strobes before the chants and screams bring Freya and her band back for one big finale for Lost Without You and I Still Have You crushing us into tears before going on a high with strobing blue lights to Holy Water. If you want to ride an emotional rollercoaster and have the adrenaline pump through your veins from the first second to the last moment then you really cannot do no wrong with Freya Ridings. This really how a live show should be. Her ‘first’ major headline tour… and there is definitely more to come. Just keep watching this space.