Bastille Bring The ReOrchestrated Tour To London’s Royal Albert Hall

Bastille have been taking their ReOrchestrated tour around the UK and last night (Monday 16th April 2018) they performed at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall. 

Upon announcing the ReOrchestrated tour last year, Bastille frontman Dan Smith explained that the idea was inspired by a one-off charity show they did at Union Chapel in London last year. In it they deconstructed and rearranged their songs using strings, brass and a gospel choir and it went down so well that they decided to take it on tour.

The support acts for this show were amazing and their connections to Bastille made it even more special. Charlie Barnes was first onto the stage, and if you’ve seen Bastille before you might recognise him as their touring guitarist/backing vocal extraordinaire. We particularly loved hearing him perform tracks from his newly released album, Oceanography, such as ‘Will & Testament’ and ‘The Weather’. We can’t wait to see him do his solo thing again soon!

Next up were longtime touring buddies and collaborators of Bastille’s, To Kill A King. They performed songs from their new album The Spiritual Dark Age as well as some of their older tracks, such as our personal favourite ‘Choices’ - Dan Smith and Charlie Barnes joined them on stage for this one making for a truly special moment between the three acts on the bill.  

Opening with a stripped back version of ‘Pompeii’ the crowd could immediately tell this would be no ordinary Bastille concert. With only Dan’s famous vocals and those of an amazing gospel choir, this a cappella opener gave us goosebumps, especially in the magical setting of London’s Royal Albert Hall. 

The setlist was every fan’s dream, featuring songs from both of their studio albums, as well as tracks from their Other People’s Heartache mixtapes, such as ‘bad_news’, ‘Of The Night’ and an extra special performance of ‘No Angels’ featuring Ella Eyre herself! We’ve got our fingers crossed that they recreate this moment at our event in Plymouth later this year. 

Some of our highlights were when the band flipped the songs we know and love completely on their heads and performed a brand new version. For example, the usually minimal ‘Oblivion’ was amplified by the epic orchestral accompaniment, taking it to another dimension. We also loved hearing songs from their first album, Bad Blood, in the setting of the Royal Albert Hall - showing just how far they’ve come as a band since it’s release in 2013. 

You can catch Bastille at MTV Presents: Ocean City Sounds in Plymouth this summer! Head here for tickets and more info.

Setlist

Pompeii
Send Them Off!
Warmth
bad_news
Blame
Laughter Lines
Two Evils
Icarus
Flaws
Glory
Snakes
Cut Her Down (with Ralph Pelleymounter) (Annie Oakley Hanging cover)
The Anchor
Of The Night
These Streets
Oblivion
Fake It
I Know You (Craig David ft. Bastille song)
Things We Lost in the Fire
No Angels (with Ella Eyre)
Laura Palmer
Good Grief

Encore:
Bad Blood
World Gone Mad
Weight of Living, Pt. I

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR 'WORLD GONE MAD' BELOW...