Entering one of the most mythic venues of North London last night was almost an impossible mission. Hosting one of the great new name of the music industry, Scala was packed with hundreds of Londoners, indie-music lovers, attending Saint Raymond’s second night of a three-night headline show.
The moment the clock hit 9:35pm, the lights suddenly went down, and in a general and loud cheer from the audience, the three musicians playing with Saint Raymond, who used to support Ed Sheeran during his European Tour in 2014, appeared on stage. After a few seconds of lights plays and riffs on the guitars, Callum Burrows, the man behind the stage name Saint Raymond, arrived on stage under louder cheers from the crowd.
With the notes of the first song ‘Letting Go’ being played, people started dancing and chanting along a series of ‘oh-oh’s to echo with the voice of the 20-year-old musician from Nottingham. In just one song, the audience and the four musicians on stage had fusioned into a perfect union around creativity.
One after the other, the songs played at Scala were becoming more powerful, full of energy and excitement from both the audience and Saint Raymond. When came ‘Don’t Fail Me Now’, the fourth song of this hour-show, the excitement was at its maximum. In a perfect harmony of voices, the four friends and musicians on stage started to sing ‘Oh! Don’t fail me now… don’t fail me now’, an acapella beginning of the song followed by a strong intro of the instruments. But when came the moment to start his verse, Burrows asked to start the song again; “I have never forgotten the lyrics of my songs before,” he added, suddenly becoming shy.
To give him courage and comfort, the audience cheered even louder the young indie-music prodigue. When, during his second try, he managed to pass that cap, some “Yeah mates!” were heard on top of the applauses, making Saint Raymond burst into a laugh.
This event marked changes in that night: the drop of that leather jacket that the singer was wearing under the lights for about 25 minutes now, and the return of “the tongue”, the (cute) move that has become Burrows’ signature along the years.
The songs from his debut album ‘Young Blood’, which was released during the summer, were following one another. Each of them making the audience dance and sing along a bit more, as well as filling their phones and snapchat stories with perfect memories of the night.
During his famous ‘I Want You’, Burrows asked the crowd to chant with him the lyrics from the chorus “I want you to know that, I want you, you know that” making the union between the people facing each other even more important than it previously was.
‘Great Escape’, ‘Wild Heart’, ‘We Are Fire’, and many of the songs from his debut album were following one another, making the audience understand that the night would soon come to an unwanted end. An event that they feared to happen when the band left the stage, leaving Burrows alone facing his mic, and his fans.
“This is gonna be the quiet part of the night,” he announced before adding, “let me invite on stage my talented friend Shannon Saunders.” For many in the room, this meant that ‘Movie On My Mind’ was going to be performed. In a perfect voice harmony, the two young and talented singers sang the song that made the lovers in the room hug, kiss and love each other even more, while most of the single people were doing the same with their beer.
After Saunders left, Saint Raymond performed another quiet song of the album ‘As We Are Now’ before welcoming the band back on stage for a couple more songs.
During the night, Saint Raymond had tried a couple of new songs for his future album that were welcome by the audience quite warmly; a relief for the four musicians on stage, who looked extremely worried of knowing the reaction of the London audience.
And then, the moment that the fans were expected never to happened was there: the “last song” was announced. ‘Ghost’ is often chosen by the musicians to be the pre-encore song. With its seems-to-be endless repetition of “oh-oh”s in the end, the audience can still chant them while the band is backstage, hydrating themselves.
After a few minutes of the audience singing, chanting or yelling this succession of “Oh”s, the backstage door opened again to let the musicians re-appear.
Back under the lights and ready to give his fans a perfect last taste of his talent and energy, Saint Raymond started to play the first notes of his ‘Never Let You Go’ under the ever-so-growing cheers of the hundreds of people present in the room.
By the time of the last song of the night, ‘Young Blood’, you could hear in the fans’ screams a mixed feeling of excitement for this song and sadness to admit that it was time to face the coldness of London and the extra warmth of the underground. Chanting along a series of “young love”s and “young blood”s, the fans gathered their last seconds of energy to tell Saint Raymond that his talent had well been received and appreciated.
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Where to find Saint Raymond:
Facebook: Facebook.com/SaintRaymondMusic
Twitter: @ Callum_SR
Website: www.SaintRaymond.co.uk
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Have a nice day,
xx
