Francis Rodino @ The IndigO2 Friday 19th February 2010

Francis Rodino @ The IndigO2 Friday 19^th February 2010
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The Bill:-
Tamanda Walker
Jetson
Chasing Ora
The Brays (bought a CD)
Francis Rodino
Kubla Kahn

Francis’ Set List:-
Other Side
Don’t Say Never
Burn
Walk With Me
Science
Drink
More Than Before
Any Day Now

So we’re on the tube schlepping to The O2 Arena and bump into Nik Hollis, which is nice. Never having been to the O2, or indeed the smaller IndigO2 venue, before it’s great to have Nik leading the way … and what a way! I knew the place was massive but was still bowled over by the scale of it. It’s a large town in a tent!

We let Nik wander in and we go grabbed a bite to eat at one of the very many restaurants which unfortunately meant we missed Tamanda and most of Jetson (jazz funky). Chasing Ora had a great sound with a good female lead vocal. The Brays were really great and worth a look for sure. After Francis, and headlining, were Kubla Kahn and it’s a good job it’s a big stage as there were load so them, including a brass section. They put on a good show and would make a good night out!

As many of you may know, Francis has been working with Ruth Lorenzo, of X-Factor fame, and it was great to see Ruth and Diana Vickers in the crowd, not to mention Jen Delaney who I’d seen the previous night singing with Dan Ward-Murphy.

The Boys came out to much cheering from the crowd and with a much shorter wait than usual, Francis runs out to join them and they kick it with one of the new ones, Other Side. This is fast and furious and doesn’t fail to grab the attention of the crowd. Fran pulls the crowd in, always giving us the usual 110% and the crowd gives it right back as Don’t Say Never takes over, followed by Burn. All these Circles and Squares tracks are so great to hear live and they continue with Walk With Me, Science, and Drink always fires the crowd up, and tonight is no exception, and the crowd are jumping.

The lads leave Francis to play More Than Before on his own on his acoustic guitar. I love this song and even though this set seems shorter than usual (though I don’t think it was much shorter, just time flies at an FRB gig!) it’s great to break up the tracks in this way.
The boys return for the last one as Any Day Now closes the FRB Show. Good Job guys! Great songs, but then we already knew that. Huge presence and energy on stage, and again, anyone who's see you live already knows that too!

As some of you may know, Francis Rodino has setup a FanFunding page on PledgeMusic to get them back into the studio to record an EP. He’s been lucky enough to secure Steve Bush (Stereophonics, Corinne Bailey Rae, and of course our very own Francis!) as producer again. I say “lucky” but I’m sure Steve wouldn’t be doing it if he hadn’t enjoyed the making of Circles and Squares.

Best of luck to Francis on that, and as I write this he’s around half way to his target already. I’ve got my CD already paid for and I can’t wait to hear the results and I’m just so happy to have the opportunity to continue being ever so small a part of his journey!

UBG