VOCAL supremo Jess Glynne took to Parklife’s Main Stage on Sunday afternoon (June 12) to play a packed festival crowd. For the second year running our reporter Nathan Salt went to catch the Londoner…
Last year I was stood at Heaton Park in a markedly sunnier Heaton Park to witness Jess Glynne’s Parklife festival debut.
The vocalist was described as ‘a major force’ 12 months ago but on Sunday afternoon she proved to a significantly bigger crowd just why her stock is so great right now.
She was second in the battle of the women having been preceded by Katy B but Glynne’s performance was on a different level to the stage’s predecessor.
Cynics may argue it is easy to have the crowd in chorus with the artist in a festival environment but Glynne mastered it; a cleverly thought out set balanced a ballad between her up-tempo tracks taken from her debut album ‘I Cry When I Laugh’.
How did Twitter react?
Would literally do anything to relive that hour of Jess Glynne at PARKLIFE yesterday ?????
— Emogene Baxendale (@Emogeneee) June 13, 2016
https://twitter.com/Sarah_Cocks/status/742281665180016640
Can't get over how good Jess Glynne was at Parklife
— nad (@nadiaholmesx) June 13, 2016
Opening with ‘Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself’ set the tone for her one-hour slot.
Bags of energy amongst the crowd and on stage as Glynne bounded across stage with an appropriate level of arrogance and assurance that she was at the top of her game – she deserved her place on the Main Stage in front of such a huge crowd.
Her number one album has a plethora of tracks that have the potential to be top 10 tracks in their own right.
Songs such as ‘Ain’t Got Far To Go’, ‘Right Here’ and her beautifully poignant acoustic version of Route 94’s ‘My Love’ highlight her star quality to create excellent music.
What was particularly striking across the weekend was how few artists could successful bring the energy down to play an emotional ballad but she pulled this off with aplomb with ‘Take Me Home’.
Many in the crowd tried their hold in their emotion as the tearjerker had audience members singing every single word back to the 26-year-old, which even had her choked up!
The North London vocalist even had place in her busy set-list to pay tribute to “one of my all time heroes” Prince which was warmly received from the Parklife crowd given the legacy Prince has left on the industry.
There was only one place she could end having played lesser known tracks among the masses with ‘No Rights, No Wrongs’, ‘Why Me’ and ‘You Can Find Me’ and that was the continual summer anthem ‘Hold My Hand’.
It’s a track that possesses a beat whereby the natural reaction is to throw arms aloft and simply enjoy the moment with the song’s message promoting such a positive, carefree vibe.
Her meteoric rise is evident in the fact that in 2015 she was allocated a mere 25-minute set – a stark contrast to the hour organisers provided her with this year.
Vocal surgery just prior to the 2015 event forced her to take fewer risks and retain her limited energy but a fully fit and firing Jess Glynne was amongst the best performers right across the weekend.
Once no more than a featured artist, Glynne has taken centre stage and doesn’t look set to give it up anytime soon…
By Nathan Salt
@NathSalt1
Recent Comments