Review: Paloma Faith, Westonbirt Arboretum

Getting emotional when she saw a baby in the crowd, making sure we remember how brilliant we are, disciplining yourself to do one kind act a day and having a dig at Donald Trump. These are some of the subjects that the amazingly talented Paloma Faith tackles when she interacts with the sold-out crowd at her Westonbirt Arboretum gig.

This show is special from the very start when Paloma bursts onto stage in her black sequinned floor length gown, split to the thighs, accompanied by her long pink hair and her overwhelming ability to bring life to every word she sings springs into immediate action. This is a role model who, although incredibly famous, has managed to keep her feet firmly on the ground and her sweet tones come onto the mic after her first three setlist songs – The Architect, Crybaby and Guilty.

She shouts: “It’s so nice to be greeted by such wonderful faces…there’s a baby over there and it’s making me really emotional because I’ve got one of those! I love all babies and I think it’s time I had another one. My mum has been sending me screenshots of all of the kids at my gig, I love them all!”

Paloma then went on to talk about life as a mother (next to no sleep and weight gain) and said that as humans, we spend too long focusing on what we don’t have and should focus on the positives.

This 36-year-old from Hackney in London radiates warmth and respect out to the audience consistently throughout this 1 hour and 40 minute set and she’s hilarious with it. We all laugh as she talks about things that we can all relate to and her honesty is intoxicatingly refreshing: “As part of my new album, I am trying to start a new trend to counter something that’s happening at the moment. I think it’s really cool at the moment to be an arsehole and I don’t like it.

“It seems to be socially acceptable to slag people off…I was raised to only say something when you have something nice to say. So I am asking you to discipline yourself to do one kind act a day. First assignment is to take your rubbish home with you today.”

The Architect was the first song in the set

Her sound being extremely eclectic, Paloma moved through her various styles of songs (pop, soul, funk, RnB and jazz) at an entertaining pace –  and the crowd went really wild when she tackled her more dance type tracks and took off her shoes to show she meant business.

Before she launched into her first ‘dance’ type song called Kings and Queens, she spoke about how she saw the police manhandle someone (her ex-boyfriend) in a way that she didn’t like and how even though he was full of promise and potential like her when they were younger, his life went down a sad path and it was no thanks to the police/people in authority.

The songs that then got people really dancing and pumping their fists in the air were Til I’m Done, Lullaby and the drum and bass track Changing. And then sadly, the finale of the gig came in the form of the ballad Only Love Can Hurt Like This after Paloma says: “I’m not doing an encore as heels in the grass are not a good idea! Remember your act of kindness that you have to do daily – now waste your last bit of energy now with me. Thank you all! You’ve been amazing!”

This was, without a doubt, my best gig of 2018 so far. Paloma has you eating out her hand and she doesn’t treat this power lightly. She takes her responsibility as a world famous artist seriously and deserves every once of success she has. Her star will never fade.