music makes me wonder: jamie cullum LIVE

who: jamie cullum
when: 8 july 2011
where: kew gardens, london, uk
support: natalie williams (uk)

yes, for my 5th jamie cullum experience in 14 months, i happily decided to go to london. (thank god again that i live in europe.) even though london is not necessarily my favourite city and was never really on my must-see list, jamie cullum totally made me forget that i was actually in london.

after getting to the royal botanic gardens at kew at around 4 pm, we (yes, again, my friend amy and i) were in the queue for 2 hours before the gates opened. while we were waiting, a filming crew from kew interviewed people, asking them what their favourite landscape is. they asked us too if we wanted to be on the big screen with our answer later. but first of all we had no idea what our favourite landscape is (who the hell thought about that before?) and it seemed to be a little weird to mention something from our home countries (united states and germany), which is why we kindly declined the offer.

the gates finally opened at 6 pm. the way to the stage seemed to be endless. halfway through the park, someone finally checked our tickets. i was actually wondering when and where they´d take a look at them since they didn´t do that at the entrance of the garden. my friend amy had a print-at-home ticket which they couldn´t really check. i expected them to have some sort of bar code scanner but no, they just kept the bar code and that was it. totally ridiculous. i could´ve just copied hat page and would´ve gotten in as well. so that was a little confusing but all the staff at kew were really nice.

when we finally got to the stage, we went straight for the dancing area, just like the other cullumholics did, so we made it to the front row, right in front of jamie. it took a while until the area in front of the stage filled, even though the reserved and unreserved picnic areas were filling up fast. i guess a lot of people just didn´t realize that they were allowed to be in the dancing area with their ticket. but thankfully as soon as natalie williams came on stage, it got quite crowded up at the front.

the opening act for jamie cullum was natalie williams (obviously). i haven´t heard of her before but it seemed like some of the other jamie fans actually have. (if you´re interested, apparently she was born and raised in berlin, so i guess she speaks german as well.) when she came on stage, i was honestly a little disappointed. her red hair, this pink shirt and those black leggings - she looked like a typical girl band member. and what do you usually expect from a girl band? exactly, ordinary voices and lots of stupid dancing. natalie williams definitely proved me wrong though. as i mentioned in previous blog posts, i´m no big fan of female voices but natalie definitely showed that she´s talented and a great singer. i enjoyed her set a lot and her mix of rnb and soul was quite impressive. she was fresh, talked to the audience, made jokes, improvised and made a huge impression on me. when i got back home i checked her out on youtube but i have to say that she was live much much better. the studio recordings don´t even come close to her live performance. not sure if i´ll buy one of her albums but i´d definitely go and see her live again.

natalie williams

around 8.15 pm, mr. talented himself finally came on stage, joined by his amazing band. if i remember correctly, one of the first things jamie said was "thanks for coming to see us tonight... and not take that!" (apparently they were playing the wembley stadium the same night). of course this little statement made the audience giggle, accompanied by lots of applause - a great way to start the show.

jamie opened his show with "i get a kick out of you", basically a classic, along lots of others. next up was "get your way", the opening track from his 2005 album "catching tales". this song is simply perfect to sing along and dance to. one of my favourites for sure. 

 jamie cullum

jamie used the first break to introduce his amazing band: brad webb on drums, chris hill on bass, rory simmons on guitar and trumpet and tom richards on saxophone and keyboards. jamie also revealed that it was actually tom´s 30th birthday, so the whole audience sang "happy birthday" especially for tom which was really nice.

  the birthday boy: tom richards

 chris hill (left) and rory simmons (right)

mr. cullum continued with "come together" (a cover) which was new for me. i think he played this song live before and lots of cullumholics already new it but since i´m usually not checking out youtube videos of live gigs i didn´t attend, i heard this song for the first time. very impressive.

 jamie cullum - "come together"

next up was "i´m all over it", the first single from his current album "the pursuit". the video to this song is definitely worth checking out. it´s also one of the best live songs since it always puts a big smile on my face. when he plays that song, i just know it was more than worth coming to see him.

"i´m all over it" was followed by "all at sea" - my all time jamie cullum favourite. "all at sea" was the song that got me hooked on jamie. i saw the video by accident on one of our music channels in germany (deluxe music if you know it by any chance) and bought the album "twentysomething" the next day. i´ve loved his music ever since and "all at sea" is always a highlight for me at his live gigs.

after his opening line about take that, of course a little tt medley was about to come as well at some point in the show. jamie played a few lines from "pray" and "back for good". take that fan or not, those songs sound great sung by jamie.

jamie cullum

 

next up was "if i ruled the world". right after "music is through" this song has got to be my favourite from "the pursuit" although i gotta admit that i don´t listen to it too often because it always makes me cry. i may be a little too sentimental when it comes to such things but this song is just so absolutely perfect that you simply have to show some sort of emotion when you hear it (especially live).

 

"twentysomething", "just one of those things" and "what a difference a day makes" were played next before another highlight, for me that is, took place. jamie and his band were supported by jamie´s brother ben, who i haven´t seen live before, for "these are the days". (this song was written by ben cullum.) i´ve always heard these great things about ben but i´ve never listened to his music or heard him sing live (no idea why). i was really impressed. the whole performance of "these are the days" made the kew gig even more special.

 

  ben cullum

 

after the amazing performance of "these are the days", jamie took it upon himself to give us a few minutes alone with him. without his band, he performed "gran torino" (yes, the soundtrack from the movie), "everyone´s lonely" and a cover of "you´ve got the love" (origianlly from florence and the machine). "gran torino" always sounds great - no question. "everyone´s lonely" is next to "all at sea" my favourite jamie song ever. it was only released as a bonus track on the "the pursuit" lp. since hearing it live for the first time last year in manchester, i´m totally in love with this song. one of my all time favourites.

the cover of "you´ve got the love" on the other hand was not necessarily my favourite moment of the show. don´t get me wrong, jamie cullum is probably the only musician who can make covers work if you ask me. i just don´t like the song. another cover jamie did was "don´t stop the music" by rihanna which is actually on his last album. i don´t quite remember when exactly he played this song but it was great as always.

 

jamie cullum - "everyone´s lonely"

when "high and dry" gets played, you usually know that the gig is coming to an end. but that´s not as bad as it sounds because "high and dry" always requires a huge choir and a massive effort from the audience. so this song is always very long which makes it so amazing. if you don´t get goose bumps when the whole audience is singing along to "high and dry", there´s definitely something wrong with you. all the other jamie gigs i´ve attented in the past were by far smaller than the kew gig. listening to 8000 people joining in when jamie sings "high and dry" was simply a new experience - an amazing one for sure.

second to last, jamie played "mixtape" - a classic for all the jamie cullum fans. awesome jumping and tons of singing. even natalie wiliams came back on stage to join us all in this huge and incredible moment. i thought it was great that she came back, made this whole performance even better. judging by the band´s expressions, they certainly enjoyed themselves as well, so did jamie of course.

after the traditional group hug, jamie + band left the stage, only to come back after minutes of applause and loud screaming, begging him to come back. the last song of the night was "wind cries mary" - always a great way to end the show. the fireworks set in right at the end of the song, the audience clapped their hands bloody for what seemed like hours, everyone felt like taking a bow in honour of this amazing show. 

thank you jamie, rory, brad, tom and chris for an extraordinary show. i´ll see you guys in brussels in august!

from left to right: brad webb, chris hill, jamie cullum, rory simmons, tom richards

it was a special performance and a great first night in london. apparently my friend amy, who was no jamie fan before, enjoyed it as well. just like she told me afterwards, jamie is great on record but fantastic live. now if that´s not a compliment, i don´t know...

follow jamie cullum here:

website: here 

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jc fanzone (run by my friend michelle) for all the latest news: here 

*special thanks to michelle rogers for sending me the setlist

*video credits: pointlessnostalgic (on youtube)

*photos were all taken by me, except for the one of ben cullum, which was taken by my friend amy spranger

***make sure to check back here for the stornoway gig review from somerset house***