Wretch 32 Takes XOYO By Storm With His First Performance Of New Album FR32!

Was the explanation for yesterday’s red sky that the sun was as excited for Wretch 32’s #FR32LIVE show as us, so attempted to imitate the album artwork red balloon? We think so too.

There was an undeniable buzz in the air at XOYO as soon as we arrived, and after grabbing ourselves a FR32 T-Shirt and getting snapped with that famous red balloon in the photo booth (gotta be done), we made our way downstairs to wait for the arrival of the man himself.

Wretch came out on the stage rocking jeans and a denim jacket in front of a blue backdrop with a single red balloon floating in front of it. He started out by warming up with the crowd with a freestyle going straight into the album’s opening tracks 'DPMO' & 'Gracious'. He then addressed the crowd bringing up the currently trending is it pink / is it blue Vans shoe? The crowd shouted the colour they saw the shoe when Wretch revealed he saw it pink but it reminded him how people see things from different perspectives. This led him straight into a passionate performance of his track 'His & Hers' which showcases two points of view within a relationship.  

From one passionate track to another Wretch went in to an extremely heart felt rendition of 'Power', emotion overcame him and he had to stop the track. Before restarting Wretch explained that his Mum was there and it was her favourite track – he went back into it and gave an extremely heartfelt performance which the whole audience was gripped by. Clearly overcome with emotion Wretch had a moment to compose himself and then brought the audience back up by asking if they thought FR32 was his best album yet. He then ran through his previous albums with the crowd cheering for their favourite, 'Growing Over Life' being the clear winner.

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It was then time to get on to the more up tempo tracks from the album and along with these came some surprise guests, kicking off with Avelino joining Wretch on stage for the final part of 'Break-Fast'. With the audience clearly wanting more of ‘Young Flame’, Wretch steered off the set list and brought Avelino back on for a performance of their track 'Hulk Hogan', much to the crowd’s delight. Wretch expressed how he was in his best place mentally and physically before appropriately going into 'Happy'. The lights then went purple meaning one thing… it was time for one of our favourite tracks from FR32 – 'Purple Colour' and just to top it off Kojey Radical came out to perform his part.  Wretch expressed his love for Kojey quoting "he came back to take us forward" and we couldn’t agree more!

The crowd were singing along to 'Time' and 'Thugs Prayer' and it went off when Wretch into 'Whistle', a clear crowd favourite. Things were coming to a close (much to our disappointment) and Wretch expressed his gratitude for his fans and their support before going into his current absolute banger of a single… 'Tell Me'. Jahlani came out to join Wretch shortly followed by Kojo Funds and it wasn’t clear who was enjoying it more, Wretch and co on stage or the crowd. An amazing end to a very special night. If you haven’t checked out FR32 yet then GET TO KNOW, we’re now off to listen on repeat!

By Roberta Hickey

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