Live Review: Jeremy Lopps - O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, London 03/04/2018
With a brand new album having just been released Jeremy Loops, South Africa’s acoustic sweetheart was back to tour Europe and parts of the UK!! His first stop was London town and the iconic Shepherds Bush Empire…
Arriving at the venue this evening there was no doubt that Mr Loops has a strong fan base in the UK, having announced just hours before that tonight’s show had Sold Out, which is no easy feat! The energy inside was electric, wall to wall people eagerly awaiting the arrival of Jeremy.
Tonight’s support was singer/songwriter Jordan Mackampa, with such a large audience this must have been daunting for any act but he handled it with ease! His mellow and hypnotic vocals engulfed the room, an eruption of applause after every song; his song ‘Yours To Keep’ equally brought a tear to your eye but also a smile. Jordan’s performance was incredibly soulful and we will be keeping an eye out for him in the coming year.
A short interval before it was time for the main man himself, the lights went low and Jeremy and his band strode onto stage. Kicking things off with huge fan favourite ‘Higher Stakes’ which instantly got countless screams and applause from every corner of the venue, Jeremy’s ability to instantly get the crowd going is like nothing else. An equal balance of old classics and new bangers were played tonight; some would say the perfect setlist! Oldies like ‘Sinner’ and ‘Skinny Blues’ matched perfectly with newcomers like ‘Waves’ and ‘Thieves’. Jeremy even played his biggest song to date ‘Down South’ twice, once acoustic and then a full band version nearer to the end of the performance; each sounding amazing as always! ‘Running Away’ got the whole audience involved, singing the chorus back to the Jeremy with such gusto it almost blew him away. Final song ‘See I Wrote It for You’ was a masterpiece finish, giant balloons, confetti and Co2 Cannons along with the audience and Jeremys energy was a master class in how to close a show!!
Jeremy said that it took him two years before he could headline Shepherds Bush Empire, we are sure that it won’t take him that long before he is headlining much bigger venues!!!
Words and Photography by Joe Dick