Live review: Beautiful Blossoms bloom with sparkling South Yorkshire show

The Stockport favourites crossed the Snake Pass to stop by Sheffield’s Octagon Centre – and dazzled with a party for their latest groovier-than-ever inspired tour.

With the boys now having more than ten years in the music industry, the Northern band has enjoyed a firm stance in the indie scene for an understandably long time.

And they've been able to go from strength to strength, while having UK number one albums one after another.

So, it would only make sense for the band to be accompanied and supported by another band that has had the same level of experience within the industry – and that was Scousers, Red Rum Club.

A familiar name to many within the crowd and the independent music community, the band have been a festival favourite, while also being known for their incredibly bold show-stopping performances.

With a sound similar to Bleachers, the band and their passionately driven frontman, Fran Doran, made sure to burn their unforgettable performance into the minds of the Yorkshire audience.

The Merseyside six-piece (which even includes a trumpet) rolled through their full of life set that featured the likes of their very best, including Vanilla, Would You Rather Be Lonely, and Elanor.

Adding another stunning show under their belt in a city that has treated them so well, its clear to see why bands such as Blossoms and The Wombats have called them in as supports.

From Liverpudlians to Mancunians, Blossoms were to follow and from their audience’s wide varying ages and demographics, they certainly pulled out all the stops for their diverse crowd of indie lovers.

With the stage and even some of their instruments cloaked in an orange 70s inspired drape, the five-piece waltzed onto stage with frontman Tom Ogden, dressed in Bowie-inspired attire, holding a cowbell in hand to initiate the night ahead with the crowd-pleaser anthem Your Girlfriend.

And with two simple hits to the bell, the Steel City was in party mode.

Second in line to carry on the concert was one from their latest album, which was to be Perfect Me.

The positive-sounding and energetic track dives into the ideologies of striving to be the best version of yourself, blending the lines of being extremely meaningful and personal while still retaining that wittingly brilliant Blossoms charm.

With the group already being well known for their outlandish and quirky onstage antics, the five-piece have truly upped their game again, with more flair being added to their bag of showmanship tricks.

This included the likes of a conga line for fantastic anthem Nightclub, and the sequence in the set when they broke it down, while the entire band surrounded the drumkit harmoniously.

Track five in their performance was certainly familiar to the crowd and a festival favourite for a reason, as Oh No (I Think I’m In Love) followed on from their known live frolics.

The band, as per usual, all froze in place during the bridge to the latter end of the track, which as always, created roaring cheers from the crowd as the band kicked the endearingly fun track back into action.

What Can I Say After I’m Sorry? and Big Star were next on the journey, these newcomers to the set unquestionably slot their way in neatly while complimenting the rest of their lively performance.

But before the swinging riffs of Big Star, Tom delved into the elaborate back story behind the first written single for their latest release.

He recounted the story of himself being too nervous to break the ice with a big-shot American music journalist, which is strange to even consider a man of so much swagger and style to be that anxious to introduce himself.

While all this was happening, the onstage lighting matched Tom’s vividly northern descriptions, as he dived deep into his inspiration, this insight into his lyrics added a personal creative touch from the talented frontman and, compliments positively need to be handed to the lighting crew for outdoing themselves.

Pleasingly kind on the ear anthems, The Keeper and Care For were next, with choruses catchier than a cold. The two tracks and their almost gospel-influenced choruses, rang out across in loud form back to the Stopfordians.

My particular favourite track, Honey Sweet, was charged with transporting the show into the endgame of an already perfect set, yet the nostalgic tune laced with brightly sounding 80s synths, contributed to a very much personal highlight of the evening for my delighted self.

Fashionista and heavily stylised name-dropping of luxury clothing brands' anthem I Like Your Look, is a constant runway of diva-inspired lyricisms complimented nicely by CMAT’s backing track vocals which was covered perfectly by one of Blossoms’ backing band members, to add as another standout bonus to their involvedly crafted shopping list of new additions and classics.

Now fifteen songs in, the indie rock collective had reached the initial ending to their first set in the form of moody yet anthemic powerhouse, At Most A Kiss, this ensured that their set went out with a musical bang of improbable proportions.

As the lights dimmed after, it took only a few minutes before any movement occurred on stage - but keen-eyed Blossoms fans may have been able to spot the silhouette of an infamous gorilla, (that being Gary the gorilla) being wheeled onto stage – and from there it’d only take a few seconds before the wailing of police sirens kicked in, escorted by some blue and red swirling lights to mimic the passing lights of a police car, to then kick off the namesake of their tour and album in the arrangement of knockout track Gary.

Slowing down the set for one song only during their encore, it was a follower favourite as My Favourite Room was an intimate bittersweet close that had the Stockport collective grouped up in a near-on huddle around Tom at centre stage for a moment of sweet purity.

With two songs left in their canon, brilliant Blossoms had left their very best ‘till last, as There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls) and their immense sounding national hymn, Charlemagne left till last to round out a show of epic magnitudes.

As Tom, Charlie, Joe, Josh and Myles once again knocked the ball out of the ballpark and into the stratosphere, the constantly reinventing quintet outdo themselves, being even better than the last, as once again everyone’s favourites have truly exceeded themselves.