Adele and London go together like milk, two sugars, and a cup of tea. In spite of her colossal fame, she retains the easy-going every-woman charm that first took her to the stratosphere – and, as recent interviews aptly show, she hasn’t lost a bit of her accent, either.
It’s fitting, then, that Adele’s return to the stage should take place in her home city. Five years on from those nixed Wembley dates – and a matter of months from the halted Las Vegas launch – Adele takes to the stage at BST Hyde Park as every inch the regal star, someone whose music has touched the lives of countless millions around the globe. No pressure, then.
And that’s the thing. There is pressure. There’s no getting around it. Crossing the fingers of her left hand as she walks onstage, Adele displays a palpable sense of nerves during a shaky opener, the vocals to ‘Hello’ fraught with emotion, the crowd roaring her on. She doesn’t shy away from it – indeed, she joking references this moment during ‘Hello’ later in the set – but it takes Adele a while to truly settle, to truly hit her stride.
‘I Drink Wine’ follows, one of the true standouts from her recent album ‘30’. Diving into some of her more up-tempo tracks – she tells the crowd she only listens to piano ballads in her leisure time, anyway – a dynamic ‘Rumour Has It’ finds Adele surging into top gear. Yet by bunching her most energetic moments into one place, it creates pacing issues elsewhere; a full night of piano ballads can be a difficult thing to maintain, after all.
Every inch the chatty lady, Adele meanders into the crowd with her mic, the hostess with the mostess. Her gift for communication is clear, and so too is the bond she has with her fans. A refulgent ‘Skyfall’ follows; halted once due to an issue in the crowd, Adele then dives straight in, a North London Bond girl who could hold her own with any international super-spy.
‘Easy On Me’ is a mid-set triumph, a moment where Adele’s peerless vocals truly come into her own. A stratospheric high, it’s a bravura performance worth aligning with the greats, easily standing alongside the records she holds dear – the Whitneys, the Arethas of this world.
Striding out on the platform alongside her pianist, a rare outing for ‘All I Ask’ is followed by her spine-tingling rendition of ‘Make You Feel My Love’. The platform then rises into the air, as Adele breezes into ‘Someone Like You’, the ultimate sad-banger performed by the Queen of the Messy-Cry; it’s brisk yet open, each note carrying far beyond the London skyline.
Not everything lands, however. Adele’s nerves clear as the show progresses, the singer finding her feet in this pressurised environment. Yet extended monologues and chats with the crowd have a tendency to fall flat; Hyde Park is known for its noise cap, and at points her words turn to mush in the stereo. At points, sections of the crowd chant ‘TURN IT UP! TURN IT UP!’ but to no avail – rules are rules, even for Adele.
Containing traces of old school Vegas glamour – her stunning dress, the simple but evocative stage setting – there was also a nod to her roots during a somewhat incongruous section where Adele blasted goodies into the crowd, including a hand-written letter, a towel, and 50 quid “to get a round in”. It’s a section that seemed to last for an excruciatingly long time – equally, the range of these goodies didn’t quite extend beyond the ultra-exclusive Diamond and Gold Circles. Perhaps some fans at the back quite enjoyed Adele thwacking rich people in the face with pneumatic artillery, though.
A stunning ‘Set Fire To The Rain’ sets us back on track, however, with ‘Hold On’ followed by a vibrant, effervescent ‘Rolling In The Deep’. Throwing shapes with her backing dancers, Adele breaks into a moment of undiluted joy, and you’re reminded of the truly wonderful vitality she offers amid pop’s upper tier – bold, brash, and totally natural, she remains completely, utterly true to herself.
Those are themes she addresses in her closing monologue. Seeming to half-apologise to fans for not giving them what they wanted on her most recent album, Adele reiterates a requirement to be herself – thoroughly, absolutely, perfectly – before closing with a bold ‘When We Were Young’ and a frankly magnificent ‘Love Is A Game’.
Ending with explosions of heart-shaped confetti, Adele’s BST Hyde Park show is a difficult experience to summarise. When it was good, it was very, very good – she truly is a one-off, a remarkable, incredible vocalist aligned to a personality both stately and contagious. Yet there’s also a sense that Adele wasn’t at full strength, with nerves impinging – at times – on the performance. Perhaps those concerns are churlish, though; when Clash leaves the ground alongside thousands and thousands of fans, there is nary a complaint to be found. After all: it’s Adele.
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Words: Robin Murray
