Blossoms team up with Mel C and Rick Astley at triumphant London show

4 December, 2022

Blossoms frontman Tom Ogden, Mel C and Rick Astley

Blossoms teamed up with Mel C, Rick Astley and Miles Kane during their show in London last night (December 3).

The band performed a hit packed set at the O2 Brixton Academy, which also saw Mel C join them for Spice Girls cover ‘Spice Up Your Life’ while Astley played Smiths hits ‘This Charming Man’ and ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ later in the show. You can view footage of the performances below.

The gig culminated in Kane teaming up with Blossoms for their hit ‘Charlemagne’.

The show was part of the Stockport five-piece’s current UK tour which will call at Belfast Telegraph on Monday (December 5) and Dublin Olympia Theatre on Tuesday (6) before wrapping up at Manchester’s O2 Apollo towards the end of the week.

Blossoms previously teamed up with Mel C for ‘Spice Up Your Life’ at Glastonbury over the summer.

Speaking to NME at the time, the band explained how the team-up came to be: “We did a gig for the charity Shelter in 2016 set up by Olly [Alexander] from Years & Years and met her there. We hung out and got on well, and we were both on Radio 2 this morning and we did a session where we had to do a cover, and she was already a guest on the show, so we asked if she wanted do one there,” Blossoms frontman Tom Ogden said.

“She suggested that we change from ‘2 Become 1’ and do ‘Spice Up Your Life’ because it gets the crowd going a bit more. It suits us! We’ve got extra percussionists and a bit of a carnival thing going on – Josh is playing a whistle, so it’s a lot of fun.”

Astley meanwhile, toured with the band performing Smiths covers last year.

“The Smiths have always meant so much to Blossoms, with even their rainiest songs complete with wry humour and soul-reaching musicianship and melody,” Blossoms said in a statement at the time. “Their poppier moments are pure, joyful, danceable poetry.

“Imagine backing Rick Astley to play the songs of The Smiths? We’ve had wilder dreams, but not many. We’ll barely be able to believe it until it happens, but the dates are set, we’re studying every note, line and beat to say ‘thank you’ to The Smiths alongside Rick and do both of them proud.”

The shows earned praise from Morrissey while his former bandmate Johnny Marr seemed less impressed when the gigs were first announced.

Marr later told NME that the issue had been “dealt with”, adding of his grievances: “There was an M.O. there that just wasn’t very cool.”

Meanwhile, Kane previously performed ‘Colour Of The Trap’ with Blossoms‘ Tom Ogden in Manchester earlier this year.

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