Eventim Apollo - 30th October 2017.
No stranger to being the name in lights (or headlines), Harry Styles is embarking on his first tour as a solo artist - a long-awaited string of shows since One Direction announced their ‘hiatus’ in 2015. Returning to the Eventim Apollo nearly seven years after his band performed on their debut tour, at the then-called Hammersmith Apollo, Styles is armed with hits from a best-selling album and a ‘rock god’ stage presence that oozes cool.
With plenty of experience with screaming crowds, Styles knows exactly what to say to please the audience - ‘it’s as simple as I don’t do this unless you come [and it] would be pretty self-esteem shattering if you didn’t, so thank you, I love you all’ - and yet there is no question about his sincerity and humility. Despite touring the biggest stadiums in the world, he is clearly still touched every time people flock (or in this case, camp five days) to see him perform.
The set works its way through the album tracks from his debut, bringing each song to life live for the first time in the UK. His latest single ‘Kiwi’ gets the biggest response, with fans chanting for the song from the start and even throwing the fruit on stage - leading Styles to slip on the stage on what he later declared to be ‘green mush’ - and he provides a reprise of the track towards the end of the show, much to their delight.
Not only has Styles matured as an artist with his solo sound, evident with his rock rendition of One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ and cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘The Chain’, but so has his crowd. When asking whether many in the Eventim Apollo had seem him perform their previously with his ‘four best friends’, I was one of few to have cheered - the crowd is not solely teenage girls as the demographic trend is no longer obvious. However, the diversity of the crowd is also helped by the large number of European flags being manically waved in the hope of gaining Styles’ attention, as fans have evidently travelled to see the star at one of his only ‘home’ theatre shows.
Nonetheless, there is absolutely no shame in packing venues with young girls, as Styles proudly discussed in his interview for the ‘Rolling Stone’:
‘Who's to say that young girls who like pop music – short for popular, right? – have worse musical taste than a 30-year-old hipster guy? That's not up to you to say. Music is something that's always changing. There's no goal posts. Young girls like the Beatles. You gonna tell me they're not serious? How can you say young girls don't get it? They're our future. Our future doctors, lawyers, mothers, presidents, they kind of keep the world going. Teenage-girl fans – they don't lie. If they like you, they're there. They don't act 'too cool.' They like you, and they tell you. Which is sick."’
This stance falls in line with Styles’ animated support for multiple movements, be it feminism (supported by his awesome female band), LGBT+ activism and racial equality. His influence is evident as fans wave rainbow flags and defiantly hold up ‘black lives matter’ posters - a sight that restores a lot of faith in the voices of tomorrow, and a sight that suggests that if any young man were to be placed with the platform that Styles has, then he definitely was the right choice.
