Florence + The Machine play stunning orchestral version of debut album ‘Lungs’ in full at BBC Proms

12 September, 2024

Florence Welch performed Florence + The Machine’s classic debut album ‘Lungs’ for a special BBC Proms performance at London’s Royal Albert Hall last night (September 11). Check out photos, footage, the setlist and more below.

Accompanied by two harpists, four percussionists, a string section, a woodwind section and more, the singer and composer Jules Buckley reimagined the songs from the 2009 album as sweeping orchestral pieces.

After appearing onstage with backing singers who wore vests illustrated with the album’s iconic logo of two lungs, she dispatched her hit cover of Candi Staton’s ‘You Got The Love’ just three songs in.

Florence + The Machine - 'Symphony of Lungs' at Royal Albert Hall
Florence + The Machine – ‘Symphony of Lungs’ at Royal Albert Hall. CREDIT: Andy Paradise

The audience filled a quiet section of the track with their own hushed take on its famous chanted refrain. Welch received a round of applause when she held one particular note, before seated fans offered the first of what proved to be several standing ovations throughout the night.

She hailed the “amazing” Jules Buckley Orchestra, before reflecting on the record that brought her to this debut Proms appearance, her only UK show of the year.

“I really had a time relearning these songs ‘cause these ranges are crazy,” she said. “Because you’re young and you’re drunk and you only think you’ll ever sing them one time.” When the audience laughed, she triumphantly declared: “And here we are 15 years later!”

Welch looked overawed at the enormous response to ‘Bird Song’, which she hadn’t performed since 2009. The atmosphere was reverential, with moments of near silence broken only when individual audience members made declarations such as: “I love you!”

Notably few people filmed on their phones throughout, though this changed for well-known singles such as ‘Kiss With A Fist’. That song was preceded by a violin solo that quickened in tempo until a countrified version of the track burst into life and the audience stomped their feet.

“So many of these songs were written when I was a teenager or in my very early 20s,” Welch said. Referring to tracks such as ‘Swimming’ and ‘Bird Song’, she explained: “What’s been so nice is… we threw so many good songs off the album and they became bonus tracks!”

Florence + The Machine – ‘Symphony of Lungs’ at Royal Albert Hall. CREDIT: Andy Paradise

She added: “I was like: ‘Wow! I love this song! Wait… We didn’t put it on the record? It was a very chaotic, messy time.”

Welch also revealed that a number of people in the audience were part of this period in her life and had contributed to ‘Lungs’. Several musicians onstage, too, played on the album.

The show featured a number of tracks she hadn’t performed in over a decade. At one point, she reflected: “There are so many songs that I haven’t sung in a very long time and it has been an absolute joy to put them together for you – and just make some sense of this!”

Welch hailed Buckley for his arrangements, saying the songs were about “feeling” and that she’d “never thought anyone could add more feeling” to them, but her collaborator had done just that.

Later, she joked of their different approaches to music: “Jules says, ‘We’re coming in in eight bars and I’m like, ‘What does that mean!’”

Members of the audience threw their hands into the air during ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’, while many were on their feet again after a dramatic rendition of ‘Girl With One Eye’, which saw Welch lash out as she delivered the lyrics, “I say, ‘Hey’!”

A brief snippet of ‘Hurricane Drunk’ blended into ‘Cosmic Love’, prompting fans to wave the torches on their phones. Afterwards, it was the musicians’ turn to receive their own standing ovations.

Florence + The Machine – ‘Symphony of Lungs’ at Royal Albert Hall. CREDIT: Andy Paradise

Welch revealed that she cried when she first heard Buckley’s arrangements of her songs. She also alluded to the fact that the show was being filmed as part of the BBC’s Proms TV coverage when she thanked the audience at home for supporting her for 15 years.

The singer led fans in the famous double clap that features on ‘Dog Days Are Over’. When the house lights abruptly went out at the song’s conclusion, almost the entire audience rose to a standing ovation, stomping their feet long after she’d left the stage.

Florence + the Machine released their fifth album, ‘Dance Fever’, in 2022.

In a four-star review of the record, NME’s Sophie Williams wrote: “For Welch, the reality of being a pop star is still evidently surreal, and the songs of ‘Dance Fever’ are full of admissions, plainly sung, with very little left between the lines.

“Where her music has long been full of near-mythological imagery – 2015’s ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ started life as a concept record about a witch coven – the reality presented on this album is profoundly more haunting.”

BBC Proms is an annual, eight-week classical musical event largely held at the Royal Albert Hall, though this year also saw events in Bristol, Gateshead, Nottingham. Aberdeen, Belfast and Newport.

The 2024 edition of the BBC Proms included Nick Drake – An Orchestral Celebration and saw Sam Smith perform their debut album ‘In the Lonely Hour’.

The Last Night of the Proms 2024 will be held at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday (September 14).

Florence + the Machine’s BBC Proms setlist was:

‘Drumming Song’
‘My Boy Builds Coffins’
‘You Got the Love’
‘Bird Song Intro’
‘Bird Song’
‘Swimming’
‘I’m Not Calling You a Liar’
‘Kiss With a Fist’
‘Howl’
‘Girl With One Eye’
‘Hardest of Hearts’
‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’
‘Blinding’
‘Hurricane Drunk’
‘Cosmic Love’
‘Between Two Lungs’
‘Dog Days Are Over’
‘Falling’

As well as being spotted at Fontaines D.C.’s intimate London launch show for new album ‘Romance‘, Welch also made a special guest appearance to join Taylor Swift on stage at the final night of her European ‘Eras’ tour at Wembley Stadium last month.

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