Rudimental - Academy 1, Manchester

I hadn't been to a gig in about 4 months, I felt like the Academy was practically calling me to get back in there. So I did and last week I saw Alt J and Rudimental. I couldn't have been to two more opposing gigs if i'd tried.

Rudimental's supports were Ella Eyre and John Newman who were both equally brilliant. I first heard of Ella Eyre when she sung with Bastille on their album 'Other People's Heartache' last year on two of the tracks and her voice is as brilliant live as it is on the recorded tracks. She did a short set however she returned to the stage throughout Rudimental's set as the female vocalist on most of the songs. I had previously heard John Newman's debut single 'Love Me Again' having its first play on Radio 1 just a few hours earlier but other than that i'd not heard any of his original material. His stage presence is brilliant as he was bolting about the stage whilst also sounding brilliant and hitting every note, his sound reminded me of Plan B's first album.

I had never been to a drum and bass gig before and jesus I have never sweated so much in my life. Lovely I know, but the atmosphere in there was brilliant and everyone was bouncing about even if they didn't know the songs. (Any hardcore Rudimental fan is going to hate me now) but stupidly I hadn't listened to their album before going so in the middle I went into some sort of haze, I was just going along with everyone.

Obviously, for all of the singles it went off but for Feel The Love it was completely different. If you had read my music blog from early last year you'll know how much i've wanted to see Rudimental just so I can hear this song live! It was brilliant how the crowd completely spread out from each other so everyone had room to dance without just pogoing up and down, there was no pushing just everyone dancing on their own, which was bloody incredible. The encore included a Paramore cover (which was really good, but really odd) and to finish with Waiting All Night with Ella Eyre. Overall a brilliant night and i'll look forward to seeing them at a few festivals this summer!

One of my favourite songs live was Baby ft. MNEK and Sinead Harnett