I Saw Florence + the Machine and Years & Years Live, They Were Great

As I talked about in my last blog, Flow Festival was great. I really love the ethics of the organisers, too. The idea that they want to create just a great festival, not just putting on something that’ll be profitable, really speaks to me.

I’d previously heard that Years & Years were pretty bad live, in fact, they were, let’s be honest.

BUT, they were brilliant at Flow Festival. You’ll have to believe me. They just were. It’s possible that the much more intimate and less intimidating setting of Flow actually meant they performed better. Maybe they were stressed or just got out of bed the wrong side that morning before Glastonbury.

The artist who really stood out to me throughout the whole weekend at Flow was definitely Florence ‘+’ the Machine.

I’ve always been a fan. She got me through my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Expedition when I needed something powerful to absorb the views of the Scottish wilderness.

From her first album, to her latest work, she’s never really produced anything dull. I don’t exactly go to her artist page on iTunes and hit refresh when I know there’s a new release coming, but I am a fan.

Anyway, she’s great live. I mean, perfect. Didn’t miss a note. She also is quite good at choreography and running around on stage as she sings and that’s no mean feat.

One of my esteemed colleagues in Finland with me, Oriol Salvador, has taken some photos of the two acts, which I’ll drop in below.