Jess Glynne – Live Review – The Piece Hall, Halifax
By Steve Crabtree, August 2024
Someone, somewhere in Halifax made a killing on ponchos when Jess Glynne came to town.
On perhaps the rainiest day of the month so far, the crowds flocked in their plastic pack-a-mac’s to see one of the best female artists of the moment grace the Piece Hall stage, for the latest live show of the season.
Here we were with another sell-out, with plenty of youngsters in the Halifax crowd. A huge number of mum-and-daughter combos, with a nice atmosphere, as usual, to boot.
“Funkier, richer and soulful”
As the heavens opened up once again, Jess Glynne arrived from beneath the stage to a chorus of whoops and cheers. Her band kicked into life with ‘Silly Me’ as her opener, before going straight into ‘I’ll Be There’, which brought the crowd to life and they didn’t let up for the rest of the evening.
Her set was full of hits and crowd-pleasers. She gave us a nice selection of dance numbers and thoughtful slower picks. ‘Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself’ came at us with energy, and ‘Right Here’ packed lots of punch into the night. The crowd didn’t stop dancing for the hour and 20 she was performing, and there were lots of happy people everywhere you looked.
It’s my third time seeing Jess Glynne in concert. And where I don’t go out of my way to listen to her recorded stuff, as a live act she’s superb. She has a fantastic band behind her that makes her music a bit funkier, richer and soulful. For me, there’s a powerful lift in her tunes when she’s in concert, and that makes for a seriously good show.
“A really special show”
As the rain kept coming, so did the tunes. ‘Ain’t Got Far To Go’ was one of my favourites of the night, and the newer track ‘Summer’s Back’ had a catchy, recognisably sampled chorus, and added some much-needed sunshine to evening! And ‘You Can Find Me’ was a great tune after the darkness had fully set in.
One of the things that seems to be getting more popular with live music is when bands decide not to do an encore. And Jess Glynne didn’t give us those wasted few minutes at the end of her set, which I really liked. Instead, she saved the best until last and ‘Rather Be’, the dance epic she did with Clean Bandit was a fantastic way to start bringing the evening to a close, and followed that with an even better with ‘Hold My Hand’ to end the night.
Jess Glynne told the Halifax crowd that it’d been a really special show, and the lights, the music, the rain and the pyrotechnics fused together and made it another memorable gig for The Piece Hall. Another fantastic night, and it’s hard to believe we’ve only got about three weeks of this left.
Images: Cuffe & Taylor
