By DJ Astrocreep
Only one gig in the UK by Roine Stolt and his Flower Kings, and, of course, it’s a London date? Ah well, it’s another long bus ride down to the nation’s capital, then. With the previously announced support Kayak having to pull out due to medical reasons, we get a gruesome twosome of Rickard Sjöblom and iamthemorning to step into some pretty big shoes.
After a chat with Roine (see below), I catch the second half of Rickard Sjöblom‘s set and the venue is suitably busy to receive the entertainment that he delivers. He has been releasing material in various bands for around 20 years now and this shows in quite how strong his music is in what feels like a too short set at a mere 20ish minutes, though those that have come in early pay full attention and give his his just desserts in loud appreciation for what is a melodic, well delivered set.
Iamthemorning step it up somewhat, with frontwoman Marjana proving to be a rather charming host for the duration of their set. When describing the next song, she refers to the content as “about death, dying and being buried alive… there’s not much to do when growing up in Russia”, along with other similarly tongue in cheek descriptions, which raise some smiles and laughing from the assembled throng in front of her, while she also clearly enjoys being the centre of attention – in a positive manner – as the songs that are expertly delivered by the rest of the band provide ample support for her rather extraordinary vocal talents, with a wide vocal range paying true justice to some very well crafted songs. All of us in the crowd lap up what they put out, paying due attention and rewarding the well performed set with a very good level of appreciation both at the end of each song and the end of the set.
As for The Flower Kings, well, they certainly are something else. Celebrating (quietly) their 25th year now, the prospect of an hour 40 minutes should give us ten prog songs, huh? Close, actually, we end up getting nine, including a single song encore, though this does not even begin to tell quite what the experience is in the venue.
Roine is sat on a chair and we soon discover he is playing with a broken collarbone, suffered in a recent accident, which only goes to show quite how impressive his skills are in terms of both his guitar playing ability and his vocals, both of which are delivered impeccably, as, bar sitting down, there is no sign of his aforementioned injury in his delivery. The vocal harmonies struck up between Roine and Hasse are immense, while each and every member more than demonstrates their worth to both the band and the evening when given the chance.
The set covers both new and old tracks, with songs like ‘The Flower King’, Roine’s solo track that inspired the band to actually form in the first place, coming in just over half way into the set, whilst the (almost) title track from this year’s ‘Waiting For Miracles‘, ‘Miracles For America’ slots in well alongside more established favourites such as ‘Stardust We Are’ and ‘The Truth Will Set You Free’, with everything receiving the same loud and enthusiastic response from us all, as we are all held rapt by Roine and company, with their exquisite musicianship and technical ability meaning that even when things get very quiet and delicate there is not a single noise breaking out from the audience, nor a phone on view, such is the level of respect for all of their qualities.
The performance is nothing short of spellbinding from each member, including when Roine drags out each member of both supports to all play their part for the encore, a cover of The Beatles’ ‘The Long And Winding Road’, an encore which allows everyone to showcase their abilities without ego and on equal terms to the rest, another thing of great beauty to see. A sumptuous set and spellbinding evening of top-quality music.
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