UPDATE: 25/01/12: New York City-based outfit Blood Orange (AKA Dev Hynes of Testicles and Lightspeed Champion fame) has been locked in to support Florence + the Machine at Vector Arena. Blood Orange is the music of a seedy yet inspirational New York night time; catch these sexy, neon sounds this May!
It's hard to imagine that Florence Welch and her band have only been on our radar for less than two years. It just feels like the flame-haired English singer, with her catchy yet complex sound and artsy stage persona, has been delighting fans worldwide for much longer. This is, in fact, her third visit to New Zealand, but on the strength of her latest release, Ceremonials, this tour sees Florence + the Machine step into the larger surrounds of Vector Arena and we have no doubt Kiwi fans will flock to catch the band here.
The phenomenal success story of Florence and her band of collaborators harks back to the debut album Lungs, released in 2009. Critical acclaim and public intrigue soon followed and saw the band topping the charts worldwide. Within 18 months, Lungs won the Mastercard British Album Award at the 2010 BRIT Awards and Florence + the Machine was nominated for Best New Artist at the 53rd Grammy Awards. A performance of the hit single "Dog Days Are Over" at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards was a huge turning point: The worldwide audience was almost a billion, and by the following day, Florence was the most Googled person on the planet.
It's a huge act to follow, but the follow up album, Ceremonials, has shown every sign of following the same path. Recorded with her full band during five weeks over the European summer in Abbey Road's legendary Studio 3, Ceremonials is another product of Welch's long-running collaboration with producer Paul Epworth. Together, they've created an expansive art-pop vision that can be both captivatingly tender while still frequently soaring to places where it can overwhelm the senses.
Florence says, "This is the first time I've made a record with a sort of overarching, cohesive sound. It's the proper studio album in that sense: a group of songs that paint a unified picture of where I am in my life right now."
Florence + the Machine's Vector Arena show will be part of an extensive worldwide tour that has already taken her across the US, where fans and critics have again been wowed, with many of the fans at the US Ticketmaster site observing that her voice in concert is even better than it sounds on the record. (See the bottom of this page for reviews). And as the reviewer of the June 18 Chicago show said on the website Consequence of Sound said: "See her live, and then call her what she really is: a force of nature, a consummate performer, and someone we’re all going to be hearing about for a long time."
Don't miss Florence + the Machine in May 2012 at Vector Arena!
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