.jpg)
Saint Raymond. Photo: Debbie Davies
Two years ago, Saint Raymond was playing to around fifty people at Acoustic Rooms. Just a few days ago, he played to 10,000 people in his hometown, supporting the best selling artist in the UK of 2014.
Crazy stuff.
We only managed to catch the second half of SR’s set, but what we did catch was something rather spectacular. We walked in just as I Want You was kicking off, and we suddenly saw a rather miserable looking crowd proper going for it. It’s no surprise, Saint Raymond, real name Callum Burrows, has a knack for writing some huge anthemic pop choruses, which when mixed with the catchy guitar riffs make a tune that spins round your head for days.
You could see Callum’s confidence grow as the set went on. By the time we were at Young Blood, when he announced it was the official “time for dancing”, the majority of the crowd had fallen in love with the, well, rather lovable cheeky chap.
His band helped keep the energy flowing throughout, but it was when his band left the stage that the true standout moment occurred. After asking everyone to shine a light in the air, Burrows went into As We Are Now, a song he wrote when all his mates sodded off to uni. Powerful and quite frankly beautiful, it’s crazy to think how far this young lad has come in such a short time.
The band march back on, and it’s not long before they smash into new single Fall At Your Feet. The crowd has a go at the woah-ohs, as the band finish with the kind of jam you’d expect a headline act deliver. As they head off stage, I think it’s safe to say there will be plenty of new followers on Raymond’s Twitter.
In what might be the quickest turnaround the Arena has ever experienced, Ed Sheeran is on within about twenty minutes. Kicking off with album track I’m A Mess, it’s incredible how much he gets the crowd going despite being a one man band.
During the ten or so tracks that we saw, we were equally as entertained as we were bored. Ed is a great performer, there is no denying that. And he’s also a great songwriter. On top of all that, he also seems to be the nicest guy on the planet, and gives off the cool teacher vibe that we all wish we had at school.
As a fan, I recognised the majority of the songs that he played, but his setlist was a bit mediocre. As previously mentioned, he started with I’m A Mess which has a reasonably fast tempo, but, that tempo dipped a lot throughout the first ten songs, and despite the fact these songs had thousand of girls swooning, I have to say I found myself a little bored.
After looking up the setlist online, it looks like the majority of his faster tunes were saved towards the end, and that’s fine. But if you’re gonna be a one man band (which Ed does carry extremely well), you need to have the audience hooked from the start, and I have to say, it took too long.
Saint Raymond and Ed Sheeran played Capital FM Arena on 24 October 2014.
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
