Gigs are hard things to attend on your own, and after what seemed like an eternity of back and forth in my own head on if I was going to go or not, I found myself on the DLR, then the Tube, then walking towards the entrance of the O2, then walking down the inside high street of the Millennium Dome (which I’d never been inside before), and walking and walking and walking (its fecking big), all the way around to Gate H which is where my seat was located, and then standing at the entry line trying to desperately access the Free WiFi (which of course you have to sign up to use before you can use it), so that I could download my ticket for the show… So I was there now.. I’d may as well go see what it was all about right?

So I head up the two long escalators to the gods where the seat was located and find a toilet on the way, then get in a queue to get myself a drink as once I was in there, I didn’t intend upon leaving till the show was over. So.. with my drink I headed into the arena. Ok.. so it’s big! Much bigger than our arena in Liverpool. Our arena has a capacity of 11,000 people. The O2 has a capacity of 20,000. Yeh, so just a few more thousand people then. But.. It wasn’t full.. and the show wasn’t sold out I believe. Anyway, my seat was up in the gods, row L so that was a lot of stairs upwards, almost like climbing a ladder it was so steep. I was mid-row too (great), that is what is is like sometimes when you don’t get to choose your exact seat. I had a spare ticket because for some reason this lonely lemon bought two. No idea why. So there was a free seat next to me to the left, and to the right was a group of arrogant, rude Italians out for a good night out.

I was mega surprised at the smallness of the stage compared to the size of the venue. I thought that Florence + The Machine would have had more of a stage presence than they did. They looked very small down there. Of course, they were far away, but still. There were two screens flanking either side of the stage but they were honestly smaller than I thought they might be. The lighting during the show was fantastically well designed and controlled by the technicians but somebody didn’t pass the memo on to those controlling the sound. It wasn’t evenly distributed around the venue.. Speaker stacks were flown as is usual for such an event, but favored the left and back side of the venue more than the right. I am sure it sounded great for someone down there, but not a lot of attention was paid to how it sounded where I was sat anyway. Not a reflection on Florence, who really can sing live, but more so on the setup and mix that was happening.

I got there after 7pm, unintentionally, after what seemed like a long walk to transfer from DLR to tube at Canary Wharf and then the unexpectedly long walk inside the dome to get to entrance H. All I can say in the positive there is that the entrance being literally the last one, or the furthest away, it wasn’t that busy and there was no queue to enter. When I arrived I was able to get into the row without an issue and almost fell down into my seat than sat down before recovering enough to get comfortable before the Italians arrived. I’d missed the first support act completely “Aziya” (but apparently didn’t miss much) and then saw the second support act.. “Willie J Healey” again didn’t miss much, they didn’t seem like they were on for long before Florence made her entrance.

I was there on the Friday 18th November 2022 date which was the first of two that were scheduled to take place at the 02 as part of their Dance Fever UK Tour. And you know for all my anxiety about going or not going to this one, and it was bad, my friends will attest to that, I am glad I went… as it turns out that during the show on the 18th November 2022 Florence hurt her foot. I can tell you this was true because I was there watching it happen. Ok I might have been too far away to have seen the incident itself, but you could see her flowing around on and off the stage throughout the night. The group played some 23 tracks in total with 20 in the main set then an additional 3 in the Encore. However it was around the 8th or 10th song that she said on the mic that she would need to leave the stage for a moment as she had cut her foot and was dripping blood all over the stage.

Off she went to have her foot taped up and some technicians were clapped for cleaning the blood from the white stage. After a minute or two Florence came back on to the stage saying it was taking too long and that she would get her foot taped after the next song. So she belted out What Kind of a Man and then after that song she left the stage again to have her foot looked at. Again she returned claiming it was taking too long and she felt guilty about leaving the stage for so long. She went on to do this a third time too, this time it was longer and her band started to jam out a little before she returned to the stage, this time for good to complete the main set list.

I must admit, I know less songs from Florence than I thought I did, but I did recognise some of them… Heaven is Here, King, Free, Dog Days Are Over, What Kind of Man, Hunger, You’ve Got The Love, Kiss With A Fist, Cosmic Love (of course), My Love and then Shake it Out & Rabbit Heart from the encore. The first of the three tracks she played in the Encore was a track called ‘Never Let Me Go’ which apparently she hadn’t sang and the band hadn’t played in more than ten years. She couldn’t sing it for a long time but now felt like doing so again.. And well I am not sure that anyone there really knew it that well. Everybody was seated for that one.

Most of the tracks, certainly the more up-beat tracks that were sung were for me mostly an audio experience, as of course people stand up at gigs. Even up in the gods. They can see perfectly well sitting down from up there, but of course they have to stand. So most of the show was spent for me looking at someone elses arse jiggling in front of me. Rude Italian man in my case. View was blocked entirely. View of the big (little) screens too. But when they were seated I could see a little and took some photos too. At one point Florence told everyone to put away their phones.. You can probably guess how that went over… Overall I found some of the messaging from the show a little off. I guess it was just Florence being Florence, but some of the comments and things she said.. didn’t sit that well with me. (Probably just me being a grump right?).

The Camera operators.. filming the show, for broadcast to the big (little) screens.. were not the best. For the most part they were spending too much time being ‘arty’ with their framing than focusing on the music or singing happening on the stage. I found most of it to be completely out of focus! Am I happy I went… Yes I am, I don’t know why I wasted money on two tickets, I know I won’t be doing that again, but at the same time I don’t think I will be buying any tickets to gigs for a while either. I am not comfortable attending gigs on my own at the moment, that seems to be where my limit lays. It wasn’t easy to do at all and in it being quite hard for me to get myself over myself and get there, it did affect my enjoyment of the night of entertainment too. Would I go and see Florence + The Machine again.. No, probably not. Done it now. They were good, but they were not.. great. Not once in a life-time as I thought it might have been.

It was later confirmed that during singing ‘What Kind of Man’, Florence had hurt her foot, we knew she had cut herself on something during one of her trips down from the stage, but we just thought it was a cut, we knew nothing more at the venue itself. However the next day it was announced that she had broken or fractured her foot and that she had to cancel or postpone the remainder of the UK Tour, including the 2nd night of performance planned for the Saturday 19th November at the O2. She said in a statement:

’Im so sorry to say that after an X ray it seems I was dancing on a broken foot last night. 🩰
It is not in my nature to postpone a show, and certainly not a UK tour, but I’m in pain and as dancers know, dancing on an injury is not a good idea. And have been told not to perform to avoid further damage. 🩸

Please hang on to your tickets. We are working our hardest to reschedule these dates for next year and we will let you know as soon as possible.

I’m heartbroken as the Dance Fever tour has been my favourite show we have ever put on.
The communion with you. Your beautiful faces shining. 🩸

I love you so much, and I’m so sorry to anyone who is disappointed. My heart is aching. I can’t wait to be back on my feet and back in your arms. X x

So it turns out her cut was much worse than she or her crew backstage thought it to be and after only I think four shows of the Tour, it has had to be postponed. So I do feel lucky to have got to see them live. For what I saw of them anyway, or should I say hear them live. It wasn’t the best gig I’ve ever been to, but I am glad that I have got to see a show at the O2 in my lifetime. Get well soon Florence.