This Saturday just gone I went to see John Legend and The Roots at the Hammersmith Apollo.
What a brilliant night it was too.
It all kicked off with one of my favourite newly-established singers of this year, Katy B.
Katy has just been signed to Columbia, deservedly so as well - she's been putting in work for a long while now and proved her worth with a nice little warm up for John Legend and the gang. It's often said, to the point of being a cliche, that hearing a song done with a live band is typically so much better than the recorded, studio version - as I found with Katy's performace.
Hearing As I and Katy On A Mission etc... done with a band was really entertaining, and I couldn't help smiling at Katy's little jig that I always see her doing when she's on stage. The girl's got style... proper London style.
Anyway, Katy went down a treat - so the crowd was well and truly ready by the time John Legend and The Roots stepped out on stage.
Mannn, so much good music. Their album, Wake Up!, is highly rated and it's easy to see why ...putting John and The Roots together is a perfect combination; like strawberries and cream, cheese and pickle, bangers and mash... you get the idea.
John's voice is seriously good, as any fan will tell you, and he didn't drop a note throughout - while MC Black Thought, ?uestlove and the rest of the Roots' live band were second to none.
Our very own Estelle made a surprise appearance midway through, and the audience loved it - they were enthusiastic peeps dancing all the way through, while other members of the crowd (which I have to say was really diverse - old, young, black, white, whatever...) were clearly moved by the great music being played out before them.
A great night enjoyed by all I think.
As a bonus, here's one of my favourite Roots tunes - the video is an all-time classic and was seriously difficult to find. I can't believe the captions have been edited out on the official Roots VEVO account on YouTube! UNBELIEVABLE. Why would you do that?!
The Roots - What They Do
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