Scream Louder: Five Pivotal Florence + The Machine Performances
Tuesday, 14 October 2025
Written by Stereoboard
Photo: Autumn De Wilde
There are few sights in contemporary pop quite like Florence Welch in full flow. Over the course of almost two decades, the leader of Florence + The Machine has become one of the most arrestingly theatrical live performers on the planet, melding startling vocal power with otherworldly presence equal parts Stevie Nicks and folk-tale sprite.
With a new album, ‘Everybody Scream’, set to land on October 31, Welch and company have announced a wide-ranging UK tour for February 2026, stopping in Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Sheffield, London and Manchester, after which they’ll head for mainland Europe alongside Paris Paloma, whose own spin on indie-pop owes plenty to the headliners’ sound. Click here to find tickets for all dates.
Before then, we take a look at five performances that proved to be pivotal in the shaping of a unique performer, from festival surprises to elaborate celebrations.
Reading Festival, 2009
Almost immediately after the release of Florence + The Machine’s debut LP ‘Lungs’ they got to see the impact it was making in real time. Their sets at Reading 2009 — a secret one to open the BBC Introducing Stage and their planned one on the NME/Radio 1 Stage — were buzzy triumphs, complete with heaving crowds who belted back each word of formative hits such as Kiss With A Fist. At this point Welch still had one foot in the London scene that raised her, with her look somewhere between indie-sleaze and Kate Bush in the video for Babooshka. She’d soon strike out in search of something entirely her own, but this was a great place to start.
Alexandra Palace, 2012
‘Lungs’ was a multi-million-selling hit, leaving ‘Ceremonials’ to pick up the baton and run with it. Released in the autumn of 2011, Florence + The Machine’s second album punched everything up: it was grander in scope, more instrumentally florid. That was reflected by a series of huge shows at Alexandra Palace, where strings, choral flourishes and thunderous percussion were thrown into the mix alongside Welch’s vocals, which had reached heretofore unseen levels of rafter-shaking expressiveness.
Glastonbury Festival, 2015
Remember when Dave Grohl fronted Foo Fighters from a big throne after breaking his leg? Of course you do. What you might not remember is that his injury opened the door for Florence + The Machine to play the biggest show of their career by headlining Glastonbury in their place. Naturally, they looked right at home up there. Off the back of ‘How Big How Blue How Beautiful’, a record that found fresh emotional highs to scale, Welch climbed into the challenge of holding the colossal crowd’s attention, whipping up cacophonous responses to Ship To Wreck and, fittingly, a stately run through the Foos’ Times Like These.
O2 Arena, 2022
The show must go on is a maxim to live by in Florence Welch’s world. “It seems I was dancing on a broken foot last night,” she wrote the morning after this set, while temporarily scrubbing the rest of a UK tour supporting her 2022 LP ‘Dance Fever’ to recover from the injury. The most remarkable thing, though, was the way she finished the performance on one wheel. No chairs, no acoustic interludes — post-break she was tearing around the cavernous expanse of the O2 during Choreomania, thrashing at the barrier and generally flinging herself around in a barefoot frenzy. All that and nary a bum note. Remarkable.
Symphony of Lungs, Royal Albert Hall, 2024
Fifteen years on from the release of ‘Lungs’, this felt like closing a loop on things. As part of the BBC’s Proms, Florence + The Machine were aided and abetted by Jules Buckley and his orchestra in ramping up the grandeur around songs that were already terribly grand in spirit. Decked out in a flowing red dress, surrounded by a massive choir and thrumming timpani drums, Welch looked at home in a way that most artists simply would not, her voice always front and centre despite all the bells and whistles. Sometimes things make sense, and Florence at the Proms made sense.
Florence and the Machine Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Fri February 06 2026 - BELFAST SSE Arena Belfast
Sun February 08 2026 - BIRMINGHAM BP Pulse Live
Mon February 09 2026 - GLASGOW OVO Hydro
Wed February 11 2026 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Utilita Arena
Fri February 13 2026 - LIVERPOOL M&S Bank Arena
Sat February 14 2026 - SHEFFIELD Utilita Arena
Mon February 16 2026 - LONDON O2 Arena
Tue February 17 2026 - LONDON O2 Arena
Fri February 20 2026 - MANCHESTER Co-op Live
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