Everything Everything play final show of 2010 with 16-piece orchestra

Manchester band perform at London's Union Chapel

Everything Everything played their last show of 2010 last night (December 15) at London‘s Union Chapel with The Man Alive Ensemble.

The band were joined by the 16-piece orchestra from Manchester’s Royal Northern College Of Music for the show, which was streamed live via an iPad app.

The orchestra aided them in rearranging all 12 songs from their debut album, ‘Man Alive’. They previously played one other show with the orchestra at the RNCM on Monday night (13).

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Bassist Jeremy Pritchard confessed to NME that, despite their composed appearance on stage, their rehearsals had been sporadic at best.

“We had too few rehearsals!” he said. “There are 19 of us on stage, and the orchestra are students with busy lives, so we couldn’t ask people to travel too often. So we had two and a half rehearsals, then a run-through on the day in Manchester, then there’s tonight. It’s been absolutely by the skin of our teeth all the way through.”

Whilst frontman Jonathan Higgs ironed shirts for the band (“We had to buy the iron especially,” he grinned), Pritchard explained the band’s motivations for presenting such a lavish reinterpretation of their debut.

“We thought the songs had a lot of richness that could have been interpreted differently or brought out more,” he said. “You don’t want to fanny about with the details when you’re at a smaller venue, but we would quite like to fanny about with them in this setting!

“I think the danger is that it could become very bloated and grand, but hopefully we’ve avoided that and been quite tasteful with it. We were careful not to negate the sense of fun on the record, but at the same time do something a little bit more grown up and luscious. And it’s quite festive with all the trumpets and glockenspiels.

“2010 has been amazing, and this is a wonderful way to end it. Even if tonight, the building burns down and everybody dies, I’ll know we’ve done enough. I haven’t felt this happy about a gig afterwards for a really long time.”

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The band were supported by Porcelain Raft and an unannounced live set from James Blake. The crowd included Ellie Goulding, Fyfe Dangerfield and Laura Marling.

Everything Everything played:

‘Schoolin”
‘QWERTY Finger’
‘Come Alive Diana’
‘Leave The Engine Room’
‘Suffragette Suffragette’
‘Two For Nero’
‘MY KZ YR BF’
‘Final Form’
‘Photoshop Handsome’
‘NASA Is On Your Side’
‘Tin (The Manhole)’
‘Weights’

Highlights will be available to watch via the band’s official website, Everything-everything.co.uk, soon.

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