2024 has been a special year for Bill Ryder-Jones. After the release of his critically acclaimed fifth studio album, ‘Iechyd Da’, the singer toured and played festivals while continuing to collaborate with and produce for other artists. Yet there seems no other fitting way to celebrate the culmination of this campaign and draw the year to a close than making his debut at the Barbican Hall, playing his album in full for the first time with an orchestra.
As daunting as the night was for Bill and the band, each song painted them comfortably onstage. The most poignant image of this was during ‘Christinha’ as Bill’s wispy deliberations manifested in “I was bad / I was all the things you would never want to have” and “Let’s get together in our minds”. To perform his most vulnerable musings in such a beautiful scene, with intimacy and expansiveness, the ethereal studio version transformed in intensity, with extra thanks to Brooke Bentham’s complimenting harmonies.
At a Bill Ryder-Jones gig, you can usually expect moments of sadness, doses of welcomed humour, and a deep sense of acceptance in shared connection. Hearing Bill sing “Don’t the stars look good tonight? / …There’s something great about life / But there’s something not quite right” on ‘It’s Today Again’ summed up and amplified this emotional experience, serving as a reminder of the album’s sweetly childlike elements and orchestral meditations.
Like a coming-of-age, hard-hitting anthem, the performance of ‘This Can’t Go On’ embraced the crowd in all its heavenly glory. “You’ve got to get outside, go get some sun / Got to get yourself together because this can’t go on”. ‘Iechyd Da’ was made to be played in grand settings like this.
During the sweeping instrumental highs of ‘…And the Sea…’, Bill took pictures of his band and orchestra on stage (as well as getting a photograph of himself in the process) – a way of making tangible how important the gig was to him. He also captured the night with a small speech before the stunning ‘Thankfully For Anthony’. Admitting how rewarding but difficult the album process had been over the last four years, his gratitude etched the Barbican show as the “biggest we’ve ever done”. He extended his thanks to his manager Andrew Ellis, and all of the team at Domino, especially Laurence Bell. As the woozy lullaby and gentle goodnight of ‘Nos Da’ closed the gig, the crowd gave a standing ovation, marking this performance as a defining moment in Bill’s career. Witnessing ‘Iechyd Da’ in full took his most hopeful record and made us feel even more hope for what the future holds.
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Words + Photography: Sahar Ghadirian
Related: Distilled Sweetness – Bill Ryder-Jones Interviewed
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