Paloma Faith

The Glorification Of Sadness Tour 2024

Liverpool Empire Theatre

8th of April 2024

Tonight’s venue is a little different and not totally expected. You see, Liverpool’s Empire Theatre is a seated venue, and not what you’d expect for an arena artist like Paloma Faith to be performing at.

Like, how are we going to dance? But as you will see, the venue, actually turned out to be the perfect choice!

The venue, Liverpool’s Empire Theatre is fit for royalty, and over the years it has literally hosted royalty! Opening in 1866 and closing and reopening several times before being demolished and rebuilt in 1925, the current building has played host to stars like the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Bing Crosby, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Rolling Stones and has also hosted two Royal Command Performances, and in 2007 the theatre was the venue for the Royal Variety Performance attended by the Queen and other members of the royal family, so yeh, you get the picture…

So back to the show!

(Paloma Faith_Credit: Billy Vitch)

Tonight is the 4th date of the Paloma Faith ‘The Glorification Of Sadness Tour 2024’.

Tonight there is no support act and not long after being seated, Paloma enters the stage and the crowd goes wild! The crowd I notice is a mix of women young and old and quite a few men, but don’t get me wrong, this whole show is about girl power and solidarity, but totally inclusive for all! For me, it is my first time seeing Palmoa live and I am totally in awe! Right from the bat she starts to interact between songs with the audience and I feel with her quick wit and humour this woman could also do stand-up comedy! She is hilarious and extremely amusing when she talks to the audience and it comes across so naturally. The show is extremely intimate and in true Paloma fashion she tells jokes and checks in with her fans and just makes sure everyone is ok!

The set list for tonight’s show is a mix-up of Paloma’s entire back catalogue and it’s extensive, starting off with her hit ‘How To Leave A Man’ as she comes on stage through a mist of dry ice, it’s a well-chosen song to start the night! From there she sails (in what seems effortless) through 13 hit songs including ‘Already Broken, Enjoy Yourself and Sweatpants’ before giving us a break to get refreshments and to use the loo!

I nip outside to join the smokers and vapers and have a chat with some of the people who have come to see tonight’s show and find out some people have come from as far as the Isle Of Man to see Paloma tonight! Everyone seems really excited and are all loving the show. Soon we are told that part two is about to start so we rush back in to get seated.

(Paloma Faith_Credit: Billy Vitch)

Part two of the show turns it up a notch and the crowd now seem to be a lot more active, up and dancing in the aisles and singing along to hits like, ‘Stone Cold Sober, Gold, Lullaby and the dance-infused banger that is Changing’!

In what seems all too quickly this monumental night has drawn to a close, but Paloma still has one treat left for us with her best-known song ‘Only Love Can Hurt Like This’ and it is absolutely magical, every single person in the entire venue is up, singing, hugging and just emersed in this beautiful moment, Paloma smiles throughout the song, stopping several times to interact with the audience and you can really see that she adores her fans!

This truly is Paloma Faith at her best, and in my personal opinion, she has now reached the heady heights of British musical ICON! 

We have added a little video of this moment as a treat for you all, below the photo gallery!

Review and photography: Billy Vitch

To view the entire photo gallery, click the numbers below the last bottom photo on the right or click on an image to see it larger and scroll through.