What we thought of Ellie Goulding O2 City Hall, Newcastle
While the stage was bathed in red light, the headliner’s band took the stage. A troupe of backing singers positioned themselves in front of a silver foil backdrop before the star of the show took his place center stage. The singer wore a black blazer and boots.
Ellie Goulding is touring in support of her fifth album, Higher Than Heaven. The latter is Ellie’s first new album in three years. And as the set began, it didn’t take long for fans to be treated to tracks from the record. Ellie opened the show with “Better Man” and current single “Let It Die”.
The audience went wild during the rousing performance of “Outside.” The song was the first of Ellie’s many collaborations with Calvin Harris to appear on the show.
The new material continued thick and fast with “Love Goes On.” While “Power” featured beautiful backing vocals from the five singers who accompanied Ellie on stage. The song struck a slightly different note than the studio recording and was full of soul and groove, but most importantly the harmonies between the six voices on stage were truly something different. Likewise, those beautiful vocal harmonies continued on “How Deep Is Too Deep.”
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Throughout the show, Goulding marched and paraded every inch of the stage while cheering the audience on. And at one point, Ellie was laying on the floor, whipping her hair around like the true rock star she is. The charismatic artist has plenty of stage presence.
Ellie put her stamp on Madonna’s hit “Frozen” to great effect. The song was perfect for a cool and somewhat stormy evening in the Northeast as Storm Babet arrived in the region. However, Goulding’s angelic voice and the fans’ feverish dancing were enough to thaw the sell-out crowd at the O2 City Hall.
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With a white acoustic guitar in hand, the versatile artist continued the show with Halcyon. The song was accompanied by a thunderous beat.
This was followed by a crowd-pleasing rendition of Goulding’s hit single “Starry Eyed”. The crowd sang along at the top of their lungs, and at one point Ellie even hit an almost tribal drum beat on the floor tom that stood in the middle of the stage.
Midnight Dreams temporarily slowed the proceedings. Ellie’s passionate delivery had the crowd clapping along. However, with the synthesizer fan favorite “Anything Could Happen,” the audience hung on every word.
On Thursday night, Ellie left everything on stage and gave the Newcastle crowd her all. It was certainly sold out, and rightly so, but those in attendance agreed that the tickets were worth their weight in gold.
