Paloma Faith – Live Review – Millennium Square, Leeds
By Graham Clark, July 2024
Leeds’ Millennium Square series of summer concerts continued when two of the most prominent female singers of the last thirty years returned to the city for a night where nineties dance mixed with new millennium pop.
Gabrielle rose to fame in the early nineties with the dance crossover classic ‘Dreams,’ the single reached Number One on the singles chart for three weeks in 1993.
Earlier this year she released a new album, A Place In Your Heart which showcased her distinctive vocals, an attribute that was not lost on the Leeds audience who gave the singer a northern welcome. “I always like to come back up here and perform for you” she added.
“Honorary northerner”
Rather than her set be a nostalgia trip she performed the title track of the new album though inevitably the song that she was always going to save to the end was ‘Dreams’. As the fans sang in unison it could have almost be the nineties again – although there is something to look forward too- her first arena tour is planned for next spring.
With a new album and a book released last month, Paloma Faith has been busy of late. The singer studied in Leeds at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance and often refers to herself as an honorary northerner.
Dressed in a gold dress with matching boots, Faith glowed in the late summer sunshine as she arrived on stage. Her latest album, The Glorification of Sadness is a not always an easy listen dealing with the emotion of the breakup of her marriage and subsequently becoming a single mother – a point that she reminded the Leeds audience.
“Upbeat”
For every downbeat number Faith had plenty of upbeat tracks to deliver. Some of her biggest uplifting tracks have been collaborations with dance based artists, namely Sigala on ‘Lullaby’ and Sigma with ‘Changing’, two tracks that she wisely saved until the end of a compelling and entertaining set.
Running the length of her career, ‘Stone Cold Sober’, her introductory hit, was all bells and whistles as Faith and her band delivered the song in style. ‘Cry Baby’ – one of her best tracks – should have been a far bigger hit than it was, whilst a track off the album, ‘Cry on the Dancefloor’ was dedicated to her LGBT fans.
Remembering her time in Leeds she read out many of the bars that she worked in whilst studying in Leeds, asking the audience if any of them were still open.
Concluding with ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’, it appeared that the last call is still far off as far as Faith is concerned after tonight’s friendly, interactive and faithful performance.
