Bombay Bicycle Club @ o2 Academy 31st January, 2020
Formed in the mid 2000’s, Bombay Bicycle Club released four full length albums before taking a hiatus in 2016, reforming to release their latest record ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’ earlier this year.
Opening the show at a sold out O2 Academy Birmingham was Liz Lawrence, before main support The Big Moon took to the stage for a 30 minute slot. Promoting their second album ‘Walking Like We Do’, the band played a mixture of tracks from both their releases as well as a cover of Fatboy Slims ‘Praise You’.
Fan favourites ‘Sucker’ and ‘Cupid’ featured early in the set, ending with lead single ‘Your Light’.
In the time that Bombay Bicycle Club haven’t been an operating band there has been many a side project for fans to get their teeth into, however none of which matched the scale of what the band are able to produce. Backed in the live environment by a backing singer, brass section and keys player as well as the four respective members, you’re very quickly reminded of how great a live band Bombay actually were and are.
And as their subsequent festival headline slots and large touring venues show, they certainly haven’t lost their way or had to work their way back up to match where they were prior to the hiatus.
Performing a mixture of tracks from all full band releases, the group cleverly bunched songs together from certain releases to create an energy and dynamism to the evening.
From the indie disco anthems of ‘Always Like This’, ‘Cancel On Me’ and ‘Evening/Morning’ to the toe tapping nature of ‘Shuffle’ and ‘ How Do You Swallow So Much Sleep’, there were aspects of the band’s many guises throughout the performance to please all era of fans.
New songs made way to older songs seamlessly and the band took many opportunities throughout the evening to thank both the crowd and members of their band, clearly more than happy to be back. And we’re more than happy to have them back, let’s hope it always stays like this.
Reviewer: Dan Earl
Photographer: Ian Dunn