Reviews

Professor Green in Bristol gig review at O2 Academy

Posted on: 2014-12-09

You'd think he'd be used to all this by now, over the excitement and gratitude after nine years. But maybe he struggled with the injury break more than we know, and has enjoyed this tour more than we'll ever realise.

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Stephen Manderson, known to most as Professor Green, performed in Bristol at its O2 Academy tonight with a crazy energy, excitement and pure passion for performing. 

The lights cut and faded up into blue as Professor Green's female vocalist Katie Holmes opened the show singing Tori Kelly's vocals in Lullaby, at which point Green arrived grinning broadly on stage for his part to screams of thrill from the crowd. For the relatively small venue that Bristol's O2 academy is, we were a huge crowd, squeezed in at every possible crack with a view; we'd waited for this night so patiently for so long. 

And this really was a long awaited gig, originally scheduled for May but postponed due to injury until December which, at the time felt an agonising wait. But December the 9th finally came around and what a show he put on for us. 

His genuine sadness of having to postpone was evident as he apologised from the heart for the 2 year delay, saying "I genuinely mean it". And we can surely forgive him since he gave us everything we could have wanted and more; throwing himself into the left, right and centre of the crowd - literally, asking us to say a proper hello, and frequently reaching out to touch the eager fingertips of the front row. 

He sang all the hits, old and new, from Remedy to Just Be Good To Green and even his collaboration song Jungle. He also turned the tempo down from time to time, including heartfelt songs like Lullaby and Babylon, accompanied by the very talented Katie Holmes-Smith, who did his collaborations with female artists huge justice. 

It felt very much more than just seeing the artist perform, but more like a whole band as the 'backing' singers danced and sang around the stage freely, interacting with one another, the other band members, and Green himself impulsively and as the music led them.  

His band consisted of two vocalists; one male and one female, a keyboard player, a bass guitarist who also sporadically played the keys, a drummer, and an electric guitarist, all of whom seemed to be having as much of a rave as the rest of us. Professor Green seemed to adore every one of them, feeding off their energy and playing around jokily with them on stage. 

Not only did he love his band's presence, he seemed to love ours too, taking frequent opportunities to interact and joke with us, commenting at one point of the shrill pitch of one girl's scream, and thanking us all very personally at the end for spending our money to come and see him tonight. 

You'd think he'd be used to all this by now, over the excitement and gratitude after nine years. But maybe he struggled with the injury break more than we know, and has enjoyed this tour more than we'll ever realise. But I hope he knows how much we enjoyed his tour. This night was more like a rave than a show, and Professor Green and his band were part of it, loving every minute just as much as us. 

When it was all "over" (though never really, as any gig-goer knows), chants of "we want more" brought him and his band striding back out in the predictable game of "show's over, guys" with the eventuality we all know. But not only did his encore consist of one song, he actually performed four more for us; finishing finally with Read All About It, his band and Green giving every last beat of the song their absolute all. What a show.

5/5

Photos and Review courtesy of Maria Skinner for 365Bristol
 

Keep up to date with Professor Green at www.professorgreen.co.uk or on Facebook and Twitter.

 

 

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