Review: Paloma Faith

Skiddle was hurriedly sent down to Liverpool Empire Theatre earlier this week to check out Paloma Faith, a two time platinum album selling artist, eccentric half Spanish, Hackney raised singer and a key figure on the festival and gig circuit -and it's no surprise why. With her witty personality, capricious style, cute but sharp stage presence and winning sense of humour, we knew we were in for a treat.

Paloma entered the stage with her record player in tow. Her get up is old school glamour and very much what you would expect. Fishnets. Sequins. Head Scarf. Metallic. She looked beautiful and very petite.  

This was augmented sadly by a very basic stage set up, just her, a piano and a microphone. A little disappointed as we were expecting more of the 'wow' factor; oh well. She opened up the evening with 'Let Your Love Walk In', which proved an awesome catalyst to start the evening, her voice is amazing! Like, seriously.

She then headed straight into her next track 'When You're Gone' which proved to be one of the highlights of the evening, owing once more to the fact her voice is extremely impressive. Such control and pronunciation of every word, it delivers the same clarity as if listening straight from the album, ensuring goosebumps were out in force for this one.

With roaring applause she leads into her next song 'Agony'. This is when she reveals the much more impressive set for the show, gold palm trees flanking the sides and the entrance of the full band. Old school steps to the drummer and as our previous fears melted the entire audience were on their feet. The show had begun!

Next up was our ultimate highlight of the show, a breath-taking performance of 'Never Tear Us Apart'. The room goes red and the atmosphere is intense, aiding a hugely powerful performance and we would have been happy to come in, listen to this song alone, and leave happy. It really is, in our opinion, one of her best tracks.

We got a nice treat of a song which will hopefully make her new album, Faith teasingly stating that if we cheered loud enough it would feature. We felt like we’d heard it before, yet clearly we hadn't. Proof of a sure-fire hit in the making. 

It was then time to be treated to some of her earlier hits including 'Stone Cold Sober' (hard not to dance for this one), and 'New York', another personal favourite. This was the point where Paloma begin to coerce some audience participation. Everyone was on their feet, clapping in unison, cheering for more, dancing, and most of all, having fun.

Part of her appeal lies in her great ability of making people feel involved in the night. She was regularly out in the crowd, at some points singing one on one to some of the audience and constantly encouraging people to get up and dance (to the point of making our date for the evening feel very uncomfortable, much to our delight).

Time for a couple of covers. From one of our favourite films, 'The Commitments' there was 'Dark End of the Street' performed alongside one of her very talented backing singers. It was her time to shine, resulting in a pleasure to listen to two performers who had such good chemistry singing together, and very sweet to watch.

Next of course, Etta James, with Faith adding a perfect addition to her set with 'I’d rather go Blind'. Her inspiration, she says, and we can definitely tell. 'Black and Blue', 'Picking up the Pieces' and 'Just Be' is what closed the show. Beforehand we liked Paloma Faith, but seeing her here ensured we’d upgraded her to amazing. 

There’s something special about an artist where things are not so serious, and this was intensified by the amazing chemistry she has with her band. She is totally relaxed, happy to be there, belting out all of her songs during the 90 minute set and it really was a pleasure to watch. We can’t recommend you head off to see her this summer more highly.