Paloma Faith / Royal Concert Hall / Nottingham

It’s been a while since we headed to the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham, and on a Friday night, we’re back to take in a show on the 2024 Paloma Faith tour. There’s no support act planned, but the show is over two hours, and two hours of Paloma Faith is what the fans are here for. Again, it’s great to see a full house, and the staff inform me it’s a sell out. It’s great to see shows starting to fill again (finally) post pandemic. A simple stage set, with raised platform at the rear for some of the musicians and an angled ramp…. Simple but very effective. As the lights dim, a large screen, lights up with the phrase 'There’s nothing more human than failure’.

The band take their places and the music starts up as Paloma walks down toe ramp to loud applause. Dressed in tight lace up black trousers and Iron Maiden t-shirt, and oversized studded black & white leather jacket, with her blonde hair she is a striking figure on stage.

The first part of the show concentrates on tracks taken from her latest 2024 album “The Glorification of Sadness“ opening with the recent single How to Leave a Man as she confidently strides round the stage and the crowd sing along with her. As the set continues we enjoy Bad Woman where her stage presence really comes alive, a song about strong, confident and empowered women, dancing and posing with the guitarist.

Paloma’s voice is in excellent form tonight, tonally spot on, and demonstrating a great range, hitting the highs and delivering some impressive lower tones. And between songs, she effortlessly engages with the audience, talking about a wide range of subjects, from relationships, to being a mum, and at one point clambers out into the crowd to get up close and personal to her fans in the stalls, which is greeted with loud applause.

Her performance is nice and varied too, the incredibly emotional ballad Divorce is delivered beautifully, lit by a single spotlight, and for the powerful and empowering I Am Enough at the piano. For me, the highlight from the new album is Already Broken a delightful slice of pure emotion with its beautiful piano and deeper sad vocals. Live its incredibly moving.

It’s an energetic performance and you really notice the difference in this first part with the material from the new album. Paloma tells us that she wrote this album to rock out to… and it shows…. And its evidence Paloma is thoroughly enjoying the creative freedom the album has brought her. Brilliant !

With no support, the set is split into two, and the second part starts with Sweatpants again from the new album, before a trip through the back catalogue and some of the fan favourites for the eager crowd. Starting with Picking Up the Pieces from 2012’s “Fall to Grace”, along with the likes of Crybaby (from 2018’s “The Architect”), Upside Down (from 2009’s “Do You Want the Truth of Something Beautiful?”) and Can't Rely on You (from 2014’s “A Perfect Contradiction”).

As the set draws to a close, there’s a stunning delivery of Lullaby with it’s upbeat pop tempo, which has the audience singing along and some up and dancing and waving along.

As the night draws to a close, the final song is the iconic Only Love Can Hurt Like This (from 2014’s A Perfect Contradiction) with its instantly recognisable 50’s intro, and packed with emotion, the audience all with phone cameras and torches up just engrossed in the moment. Another stunning vocal performance, moving from low to highs effortlessly, the audience in the palm of her hand.

As Paloma thanks the crowd and walks away the cheers and shouts are loud and clear. A thoroughly enjoyable show, and it was great to see how well the new material sits in the live environment. Paloma was on fire and seemed to feed off the energy in the room. A great night, that sent the packed crowd home very very happy.