Live at First Direct Arena, Leeds 17th October 2024
It’s quite a journey from playing to two thousand people in Leeds three years ago to singing for eleven thousand at Leeds Arena. With a smart set and lighting back then, this time her team have had to up the game massively into a clever multi-media spectacular. Not just screens and a roaming camera, there’s two stages, composed video for each song, lasers, a string quartet, a trio of singers – even a sousaphone and trombone. The visual onslaught matches the dance beats and leaves Becky with striding about and pointing duties amid the spectacle. It’s the couple of quiet moments that bring the ‘real’ Becky out, or perhaps the real Becky is the Duracell Bunny party-starter that makes up the bulk of the set. Or is it the song-based writer who composed the closing songs that see everyone singing along?
There are three Becky Hills at least. Nearly everyone was singing along to ‘Wish You Well’, ‘Remember’ and ‘My Heart Goes La-di-la’ at the end, particularly the teens present, loving the personal feeling of the love songs from the first Becky Hill. For most of the set, songs like ‘Indestructible’, ‘Gecko’, ‘Disconnect’; the beat is the thing and Becky knows how to pick them, find them and partner up right. It leaves the second Becky Hill looking a little like a ringmaster, bouncing and getting us into her party vibe. To these ears it sometimes feels like she’s putting in the big chorus and the vibes, holding the whole package together with her energy so that we can party. Even when she starts out on what seems like a quiet ballad, like ‘Darkest Hour’, I hear the beat gathering quietly behind till the first chorus sees it banging out full force.
It’s quite a thing to sustain, with dub-step, grime, drum’n’bass pushing onwards; Becky shouting “I wanna hear you sing”, “come on Leeds”, “everyone in the balcony”. I look behind and this really is a huge crowd. It must be daunting but this is a woman who’s been working on her act for ten years since ‘The Voice’ and a decade as guest vocalist and her confidence in songs going from her teens to today is strong.
The third Becky Hill is the one she lets us see when she talks. It’s an unguarded, honest voice that, just as three years ago, when she told us about assembling her band, tells me she’s telling the truth. She seems honestly overawed and delighted to be playing a huge venue and tells us so. Equally, later, she tells us how shitty the year has been for everyone and is appalled at the levels of poverty being tolerated in the UK and gives heartfelt thanks to the audience, knowing that people have paid for these tickets.
Flopped on the stage after new song ‘Lost The Plot’, she takes a breather and shares her thoughts. It’s an apposite time; ‘Lost The Plot’ is a new direction. She’s reached the ‘pop star complains about the music business’ stage. Taylor Swift gave us her version in ‘It’s Time To Go’ and ‘I Can Do It With A Broken Heart’, Pink Floyd did it with ‘Have A Cigar’. They’ve all done it. This is non-whiny and just angry and sassy, with a brilliant presentation, full of flashing words and emphasis on attitude.
A few times, vocal duties set aside for a minute, Becky Hill lets herself go and her love for dancing comes through. Throwing shapes and grinning, I can see the split between the singer and the dancer. Acknowledging it’s a week night, she still invites us: “Shall we all dance like we’re proper f’d up” and you can see her heart is on the dance floor – this massive show is just her way of inviting us to join her.
Here’s our review from October 2021 in Leeds