George Ezra admitted he wondered "why the f**k" he went to Barcelona to write his second album ‘Staying at Tamara’s’ as he performed a sold-out show at The O2 in London on Tuesday night (19.03.19).
The 25-year-old singer/songwriter famously went to the Spanish city for a month after ending his tour for his debut LP ‘Wanted on Voyage’ to find inspiration to write his second record.
George stayed at an AirBnb apartment owned by a woman called Tamara who ended up providing the title for the album and although the decision ended up being a wise move providing him with a smash hit LP, George had doubts about his plan when he first got off the plane at the start of 2017.
Speaking to his fans from The O2 stage – which he designed to resemble a normal living room, complete with lampshades, house plants and a rug – he said: "It wasn’t until I landed that I thought, ‘Why the f**k have you done this George? And I found myself making my way across this town that I really didn’t know and I met my host who was a girl called Tamara. Tamara and her friends were musicians and artists and designers and they worked Monday to Friday and I wouldn’t see them, I’d be walking around the city and the place that I visited is called Barcelona and this song is called ‘Barcelona’."
George was in the mood to share stories about his songs during his set and revealed his track ‘Pretty Shining People’ was inspired by a secret mountain garden he found during one of his walks around Barcelona.
Introducing the song, he said: "So I spent this month in Barcelona and I took a guitar and a notebook, I didn’t write any of the songs whilst I was there. But what I would do is I would take a note of everyone I met and everything I saw and everything I did and I wrote it down and when I got home that’s when I wrote the songs. About two days into my trip I found this mountain to the left of the city and halfway up this mountain was a public garden and I would go and spend my days sat in the garden looking back over the city watching the people coming and going and that particular inspired a song, and that song is called ‘Pretty Shining People’."
George delighted his fans by playing several songs from his second LP, including ‘All My Love’, ‘Hold My Girl’ and ‘Get Away’, but he also dropped numerous tracks from ‘Wanted on Voyage’ such as ‘Blame It On Me’ and ‘Listen to the Man’ to huge cheers of approval.
After briefly exiting the stage following a rendition of a beautifully baritone-heavy ‘Budapest’, George returned for an encore of ‘Cassy O” and hit single ‘Shotgun’ which sparked a huge mass singalong.
George plays his second sold-out show at The O2 on Wednesday night (20.03.19).
George Ezra at The O2 London setlist:
‘Don’t Matter Now’
‘Get Away’
‘Barcelona’
‘Pretty Shining People’
‘Listen to the Man’
‘Saviour’
‘Did You Hear the Rain?’
‘Paradise’
‘Song 6’
‘Hold My Girl’
‘Leaving It Up to You’
‘Sugarcoat’
‘All My Love’
‘Blame It on Me’
‘Budapest’
Encore:
‘Cassy O”
‘Shotgun’