Clean Bandit and Ella Henderson hits fire up Northern Meeting Park crowd

There was a great start to the Live in the City gigs at the Northern Meeting Park on Friday – Clean Bandit and Ella Henderson staging a pop takeover, loved by the crowd.

It seemed like a great balance for the Rag’n’Bone Man gig with its harder edge sounds to come on the Sunday. The show was cancelled, but with a hoped-for rescheduling.

Up-and-coming singer songwriter Keir Gibson, originally from Fort William – but also now spending time in California, kept the crowd entertained as he opened the night in a set also showcasing his new single As Lost As Me.

And he will be back at Belladrum and back in Inverness for a date in September.

Ella Henderson for some is maybe best remembered for coming sixth in 2012’s X Factor, and her first single, Ghost going to number one.

But she is now queen of the featured artist spot this year, with a series of singles denting the charts.

The set buzzed with her David Guetta collab Crazy What Love Can Do, REACT with Switch Disco and its sample from Robert Miles’ classic Children and the latest 0800 Heaven with Joel Corry.

Feisty, great vocals and Scottish credentials to win more over, Ella’s was maybe the set of the night?

Exceptional voices – Yasmin Green and Kirsten Joy, two male urban-style dancing whirlwinds and the Clean Bandit instrumental core even boasted “a Scottish member of the band!” – Stephanie Benedetti, older sister of Nicola.

Their hits rained down a lot harder than the one big shower – building to encore Rather Be, the ultimate high in a night of feelgood pop.

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