Gig review: Freya Ridings at the Royal Concert Hall

When LeftLion spoke to Freya Ridings a few weeks ago, she explicitly told us that she would be giving her all for this run of shows in the UK. We can attest to this. Her show at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall was simply superb.

Opening with one of her many well-known tracks, the upbeat Weekends, Freya wore a black dress with a red, long-sleeved top underneath and her red hair in an elegant ponytail as she sat at the piano. The production for this show was very simple. Decorative oyster shells of various sizes adorned the walls, with the shells changing colours at times. It was the perfect setting for these heartfelt and emotive songs.

For most of the concert, Freya was alone on stage: just her and her piano..and her mesmerising songs. For three of those songs, in the middle of the performance, Freya did invite a fellow musician to play the guitar and sing backing vocals, while she sang and played on a ukulele that she had owned since she was 15 years old. During one of the songs, Freya stopped mid-way to re-tune her ukulele and she joked that it had seen her through many years. 

Dancing in the Kitchen is a fan favourite, so it was great to hear it performed live. Freya’s singing was stunning; her powerhouse vocals electrified the room.  

A few times throughout the show, Freya dedicated the songs she played from her latest album Mother of Pearl (such as the title track) to people who were feeling low or facing “the most difficult times of their lives”. She said that although she seemed like she has her “s**t together’, she, too, had faced some very difficult times in her life.

In our interview with Freya, she explained that writing the Mother of Pearl album was cathartic for her. “I was really low, I wrote these songs almost as spells, like manifestations to bring myself back from the brink. There’s a death and rebirth to it, because I did kind of emotionally die while making this album. And then I came back and remembered who I was and remembered who I was before people tried to take it from me,” she said. That sentiment certainly came through in her live performance, and the catharsis seemed to be shared among performer and viewers alike. 

All of the songs Freya performed captured the audience wholly and the crowd was so quiet and respectful that you could hear a pin drop during these performances. However, when Freya played Lost Without You, one of her biggest hits, the way the whole room was deathly silent was really impressive. 

Freya thanked the audience for attending her show and mentioned that she had been playing in Nottingham for many years: "from Rescue Rooms to Rock City to here!”. Her rapport with her fans was plain to see, including the show's closer Castles. Here, Freya invited the audience to clap along with her - an invitation which was eagerly accepted, forming the perfect end to a wonderful night.

@freyaridings

Freya Ridings performed at the Royal Concert Hall on 24 September 2026.