THE LATEST UPDATES
Take a look below for all the latest news, features, interviews, photos and more
Don't Go Blindly Into The Dark - Florence Welch by Vincent Haycock
Exciting news for anyone who is already missing new projects from Florence Welch and the Machine as their hiatus approaches. Vincent Haycock, director and photographer who has directed many of Florence’s previous videos (including Sweet Nothing, The Odyssey, and Lover to Lover) has worked on another project with Florence Welch.
Exciting news for anyone who is already missing new projects from Florence Welch and the Machine as their hiatus approaches. Vincent Haycock, director and photographer who has directed many of Florence’s previous videos (including Sweet Nothing, The Odyssey, and Lover to Lover) has worked on another project with Florence Welch.
The project is called ‘Don’t Go Blindly Into the Dark’, which is a line from the unreleased Florence + the Machine song ‘Light of Love’.
Only two lines have been released from the song:
Don't go blindly into the dark
Every one of us shines the light of love
The project includes a book capturing some of Florence and Vincent's most intimate behind the scenes moments, and an exhibition held in Lobe Block on 6th September in Berlin, between 7pm and 12pm. There will also be a special screening of The Odyssey at the Hackesch Höfe cinema on 7th September.
293 Likes, 6 Comments - Florence + the Machine Fanclub (@florencemachinefanclub) on Instagram: ""Don't go blindly in the dark" Berlin 6th Sep 2019 By Vincent Haycock . . . #florenceandthemachine..."
Save this page, as we’ll be updating it as we receive more information.
LOVE FOREVER - A gift to Florence + the Machine
We're organising something very special to give to Florence + the Machine to celebrate the nostalgia of the High As Hope Era, and you're invited to join!
***THIS PROJECT IS NOW CLOSED TO FURTHER ENTRIES***
PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY FURTHER MESSAGES AS THEY WILL NOT BE INCLUDED
Photo: Vincent Haycock
To celebrate the end of the High As Hope era, we wanted to reconnect Florence + the Machine to their fans worldwide, whether they attended a live show or not. So, we’ve organised a little gift for the band, from you, the fans!
Inspired by the nostalgic ‘South London Forever’, our LOVE FOREVER project aims to celebrate the nostalgia of the High As Hope era and let Florence + the Machine know how they have changed you or your life.
To do this, we want you to submit ______ FOREVER, where the blank space is a word that encompasses what you hold closest to your heart with respect to Florence + the Machine / High As Hope. We also would love you to write a little note with it (no more than a few lines) about why you chose the word you did.
Some examples might be ‘HYDE PARK FOREVER’ to highlight your most recent experience of seeing them live. It could be ‘100 YEARS FOREVER’ to let them know your favourite tune. It could even be a name of someone you’ve met through the Florence + the Machine Fan Club that you wouldn’t have otherwise known without your shared love for the band.
The possibilities are endless. The deadline is the 1st August so get creative!
Send your entries to our email, hand them into our admin Charlotte Smith in person at Edinburgh Summer Sessions (first night), or by post (you’ll need to contact us to ask for the mailing address).
Lungs celebrates its 10-year anniversary
As Lungs, the incredible debut album by Florence + the Machine, turns 10 years old today, the band release some special surprises…
(C) Tom Beard
Lungs, the ground-breaking debut album by Florence + the Machine, turned 10 years old today (3rd July 2019). To celebrate, Florence + the Machine have released lots of little goodies for all the fans to enjoy, showing that the album continues to influence and shape modern music, even to this day.
Released on the 3rd July 2009, Lungs was a “scrapbook” of songs written by Florence Welch during her teenage years up until its release when she was 22. Kiss With A Fist was the first single released from the album way back in 2008, but it was Dog Days Are Over and subsequently Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) and You’ve Got The Love which sent Florence + the Machine high into the dizzying heights of success. Its critical acclaim won the album a BRIT Award in 2010, as well as a Mercury Prize nomination and 3x platinum status in the United Kingdom.
To celebrate, Florence + the Machine are releasing an anniversary edition of the LP - a red colour LP, cassette, and an exclusive double vinyl box set.
As well as the new LP release, Florence + the Machine uploaded the much-loved but rare demo versions of two pre-Lungs songs: Donkey Kosh and My Best Dress, which are now available to listen to on all streaming sites and YouTube.
Lastly, let’s not forget the tributes you’ve all paid to the album to mark its monumental decade. Check out this wonderful podcast which goes through Lungs and its memories track-by-track.
“This album is so incredibly poetic; I must’ve listened to it a hundred times from start to finish in just the first month after it’s release. My favourites have changed throughout the years, each song’s meaning hits me differently as I’ve grown, but Between Two Lungs is the definition of music as art. Thank you, Florence + The Machine, for continuing to share your gift with us for the last decade.”
“One of the best pop/rock album EVER!!!! So fresh, creative and powerful!! And the vids, the remixes... She entered the ball with a bang and never lost it! She’s mesmerising on stage!! Happy birthday to a funking great album!!!”
If you have any tributes or words you’d like to add, feel free to comment and we’ll add them in!
Join our STATIONHEAD British Summertime Festival warm-up broadcast
We’re hosting a pre-British-Summertime-Festival warm-up radio show on the 11th July 2019, so feel free to join in!
We’re hosting a special radio show to warm up for British Summertime Festival 2019, hosted on the radio app STATIONHEAD.
11th July 2019, 19:30 UK time
Simply download the app (download here) and find our station @fatmfanclub. We’ll be playing some of the band’s greatest hits discussing what set-list we’d like to see, the Between Two Books tent, the ‘stage-show’ and promo video, plus lots more! We’ll also phone in a few fans to join in on the discussion live, and be taking your song requests.
The app is only available for iPhone users at the moment, unfortunately. However, we will be holding an online discussion in the comments section of this page too, so anyone can join in.
See you then!
Florence Welch Features in Q Magazine 2019
Florence Welch covers the July 2019 edition of Q Magazine. Check out the photo gallery included.
Florence Welch features in the London Evening Standard Magazine [Gallery]
Florence Welch features in the Evening Standard Magazine, with stunning photos by Bella Newman
Florence Welch features in this week’s Evening Standard Magazine, with some pretty beautiful accompanying photos.
Shot at the Clapton Tram plant-cladded studio by Bella Newman, the interview includes Florence discussing her past of addiction, and the problems touring has brought to both her personal and professional life.
The magazine is out now to pick up for free, and you can read the interview here: https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/alist/florence-welch-touring-s-lonely-now-i-m-sober-but-the-fans-save-me-a4171141.html
Vogue Magazine 2019 - A frank and personal note to self, by Florence Welch
Florence Welch bears all in a personal letter to herself, detailing her journey from her teenage past, into the present being. A deeply moving and frank piece for British Vogue 2019.
Sometimes I’ll recall something stupid I did as a teenager – like trying to get a face tattoo at 14 – and I’ll have to sit down and catch my breath. Because I can’t believe I got away with it, that I survived those years. Or maybe I didn’t? But at least I’m still alive.
It takes a while to understand your worth, I got sober when I was 27, a few months after my birthday party, where my mother made a speech – a plea, really – to my friends to try to keep me alive and out of the notorious “27 club”. After she’d finished, I put my face in my cake and got into the shower fully clothed. That day, I would never have believed my 30th birthday would be a sober, calm affair with nice friends and nice food that I actually ate; that I would have already waved the white flag at the party, one arm fluttering from the floor, I surrender, I’m done. After all, I’d been planning the alternative, week-long bacchanal to mark the end of my third decade, since my teens.
I tend to look back on that time with a mix of nostalgia and terror. There’s a part of me that is in awe of that girl, her total disregard for self-preservation, how she could run at the world headfirst, eyes closed, with no care for the consequences. But I also want to hold her in my arms, say “It’s OK, you’re OK, you can come down now. You’ve been screaming at the top of that tree for a bit too long.”
Although I admire it in a seasick way, a lot of my bravery in my teens and early twenties came from a place of self-loathing. I was able to push boundaries and take chances because I wasn’t very fussed about whether I came back alive. Oblivion was usually the goal. I don’t know if it was owing to societal pressure or a genetic predisposition to perfectionism and anxiety (eating disorders and addiction are rife in my family) but somewhere along the line I had learned that I was wrong, that I was not good enough, not smart enough, not thin enough. I was so angry with myself all the time. How that happened, I don’t know – I am still trying to understand what makes young women go to war with themselves. But the judgement choir never stopped singing. It still sings now, though not as loudly or as often, and when it does, I try not to self-medicate with straight vodka or starvation.
Sometimes I miss the wildness of my teenage years – breaking into abandoned buildings, climbing trees in Soho Square, staying out for days, picking up outfit and bruises on the way. I was pretty feral for someone who still lived at home, albeit in a house of loving but absent academics and six teenagers, where it was easy to slip under the radar. Everything was terrible and wonderful and everyone was always madly in love or completely heartbroken, often in the space of half an hour. I had some deeply questionable sartorial phases, from “drunk librarian” to “drunk bat witch” and I now know for certain that a centre parting does not work with a large Edwardian forehead. But most of it I wouldn’t take back.
It was strange to let go all of that and I grieved it for a while. Being a musician and a blackout drinker can lead you to have a rather coddled existence, and make it hard to grow up. Partying was, I felt, a defining feature of my personality – good at singing, good at drinking and good at taking drugs. (Note: if you think you are good at taking lots of drugs, it usually means you are not good at it and will have to stop eventually, or worse.)
But the new-found thrill of leaving somewhere with all my belongings, having not been felt up by someone inappropriate in a car park, has still not left me. It feels miraculous to spend my Mondays working or reading rather that binge-watching Bake Off, unable to move, intermittently weeping into a pillow, hoping the bunting will block out the regret. There are other everyday miracles, too. I haven’t weighed myself in four years – I have no idea how much I weigh right now. Five years ago, I could have told you how much in the morning, at night, clothes on, clothes off. With and without jewellery. To let go of that sometimes feels a bigger achievement than headlining Glastonbury. It may sound as if I’m being dramatic (who, me?) but anyone who has lived under the tyranny of the scales will understand how much it takes to trust your body. I thought my relationship with food could never be normal; I believed it was damaged beyond repair. But I can honestly say I don’t really think about it now. I don’t diet. I don’t fucking “cleanse”. I try not to think of any food as bad or good. It took me a long time but the obsession has lifted. And I had to do the worst thing I could think of – start talking about it. An eating disorder wants you silent, ashamed, isolated. It will tell you anything to keep you all to itself. It’s probably telling you right now that you shouldn’t say its name, that it’s your friend. But your body is more that a thing to be looked at, it works with you, not against you. You do not beat your own heart.
This is not to say that I have all figured out – I am not a beacon of sanity. If you have denied yourself nourishment, you can often deny yourself emotional nourishment, too. I find it hard to accept love, hard to accept stability. A large capacity for joy means an even larger capacity for gloom. I can still come off stage with a crowd applauding and go back to sit alone in my room, scrolling through my phone until I’ve found enough things to make me really unhappy. Unflattering paparazzi pictures are good for that, or outfit mistakes that won’t die. Although I love social media as a way of connecting, it’s also a handy tool for digging your own personalised shame hole.
Self-harm is a shape shifter, but I’m working on it. And the more honest I am, the happier I become. I don’t believe in self-destruction as a means to creativity any more. And the less preoccupied I am with what I look like or what I did last night, the more energy I have to give to my work. I managed to be successful despite my demons, not because of them.
I wonder if my young self would be horrified at my Friday nights now: eating pasta and watching TV with someone who is nice to me. Would she think me mundane? I have certainly had journalists bemoan to me “the lack of rock stars behaving like rock stars” but hedonism never gave me the freedom I desired. And I’m no longer sure about the rock’n’roll behaviour often expected of artists. Too many talented people have died and the world feels too fragile to be swigging champagne and flicking the finger at it.
Most of my friends that I drank with have had to stop. They wash up one by one like driftwood, and we stand together on the shore in shocked relief. We cook, we talk, we work. People have started having children and going to bed early. And all the boring “grown-upness” that we rejected then now seems somehow rebellious. It is an act of rebellion to remain present, to go against society’s desire for you to numb yourself, to look away. But we must not look away. To self-crucify in the name of art always means that the art stops and another voice is lost. At this time in our history, it has never been more pressing to have as many voices singing as we can.
“You Do Not Beat Your Own Heart” - View Point by Florence Welch, in British Vogue Magazine July 2019, out now
Florence Welch to feature on new Adam Green album
Florence Welch is set to feature on the new album by Adam Green, titled Engine of Paradise, out in September
Florence Welch is set to feature on the new album by Adam Green, titled Engine of Paradise. The album was also recorded by Florence and the Machine's very own Loren, who is the band's bassist.
This is the first song Florence will feature in since the release of her cover of Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' last year, for the Elton John Revamped tribute album.
Adam's album will be released some time in September, and we'll continue to update this post as we receive more news.
Florence Welch covers Harper's Bazaar Russia [Gallery]
Florence Welch photographed by Nick Hudson for Harper’s Bazaar Magazine (May 2019)
Florence Welch croons on Game of Thrones with Jenny of Oldstones
The keen-eared amongst Florence + the Machine, and Game of Thrones fans alike, may have a heard a familiar voice singing at the end of the season 8 episode 2 into the credits.
The keen-eared amongst Florence + the Machine, and Game of Thrones fans alike, may have a heard a familiar voice singing at the end of the season 8 episode 2 into the credits.
None other than our very own Florence Welch was approached by David Benioff and Daniel Weiss, who have produced and written the final season of Game of Thrones, to work with the show’s musical composer Ramin Djawadi on a song he had written titled ‘Jenny of Oldstones’. The haunting song first appears within the episode itself, sung by Podrick, and then again by Florence in the credits.
According to the show’s producers, Florence was approached by them to sing ‘The Rains of Castamere’ in previous seasons, but Florence turned down the offer. The band’s music was also used for the season 2 trailer (Seven Devils), and so the producers are clearly big fans. This time, Florence was delighted that she was chosen to sing the track. Speaking about the opportunity, Florence said:
The notes of [the song] sounded like a Celtic folk song to me. I thought it was really beautiful. I love the idea of dancing with ghosts and never wanting to leave. That totally makes sense to me. I feel like I do that every night on stage.
I worked with Thomas Bartlett on “High as Hope,” and he’s a piano genius. He helped formulate the chords, and then I kind of added my choir, my hellish soprano. We just tried to keep within the “Game of Thrones” world, to retain the ghostliness of it.
What I wanted to do with this song was keep it as sparse as possible. It does get a bit more rousing at the end, but I really wanted to retain the simplicity of the melody and the lyrics that they sent me, because I found them so moving. If I had known the history of the song, I would have been like, “[Expletive], we need fanfares, and you’re going to have to get a dragon on here somehow.” I might have — as I can do sometimes — overblown it. So I’m glad I didn’t know then, but I’m glad to know now. You want the beauty and the fragility in there as well. I would have made it too big, if I had known just how [expletive] big it is!
The song itself is in direct reference to George R. R. Martin’s fantastical world. In the novels, it is mentioned that Jenny was a peasant girl who won the heart of Prince Duncan Targaryen. Duncan eventually married her, against his father’s wishes. Because of this, Duncan had to abdicate his title as Prince of Dragonstone and release his claim to the Iron Throne. This made his nephew, Aerys II (later known as the “Mad King”) the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. During the tragedy at Summerhall, King Aegon V Targaryen (Duncan’s father) tried to hatch a clutch of dragon eggs. Somehow, a fire started and consumed the pleasure palace, killing him, Prince Duncan, the Lord Commander of the King’s Guard, and many others in his court.
Florence + the Machine also recently debuting the song live on the second leg of their US High As Hope Tour, which you can watch below.