The vibe:
Having only heard of one FLO song – the Tiktok famous ‘Cardboard box’ – buying tickets to their intimate performance and Q&A session may seem a little strange. For me however, live music is always incredible whether I’m familiar with the band or not. The venue was The Level in Nottingham, a student union bar lit with red mood lighting and unsurprisingly sticky floors. About 200 people fill the room; some are upstairs watching casually over the balcony and some are on the dancefloor, drinking and chatting, squished as close to the stage as they can get. The stage houses 3 fold-up chairs and a guy starts strumming the guitar as FLO appears.
They’re a trio: Jorja Douglas, Renée Downer and Stella Quaresma – black girls from London and they give classic girl band vibes. They’re in red ensembles; their tops are different cuts but made of the same gauzy fabric, they’ve got soft bronze makeup on and matching slick, straight honey brown tone hair; a la 2006 Beyonce. They’re gorgeous and the crowd is restless for them to start as they settle onto the chairs, microphones in hand.
Performance:
The performance itself was indeed intimate. They announce the first song – ‘Walk like this’ from their new album – and the crowd is ready. Almost everyone in the room is word perfect, cameras up and recording the snippets of the girls you can hear over the audience’s voices. One thing about FLO: they sing well. All three girls have voices that are expressive and lack the pitchiness you’d expect from newcomers, and for any one into the complexity of group vocals, there are 3-part harmonies galore. Renee brings a rich, grounding bass to their sound, she has the range and the stability; Stella’s voice is lilting, soft and sweet, often running solo riffs; Jorja’s voice is stunning: soulful and well controlled. Their compatibility is undeniable and the change over from song to song is engaging. They laugh with the audience, switching up lyrics to include the crowd in the moniker of ‘flygirls’ and reminding us to ‘stay in our bag’ at all times. (Very necessary reminder considering the cost of living at the moment means SFE is not stretching as far as it once did).
The show is fun, and I can see why their music has gained popularity. They would be at home in a 2000s RnB playlist. Both their lyrical and physical style fit in with the resurgence of y2k and 00s fashion but with the modern sensibilities of owning your sexual liberation, peppered with modern slang and features from other trendy artists like Glorilla. I’m not surprised that when I check their Wikipedia, they’ve been nominated for VMAs, Brit awards and are a staple on many lists of rising stars. Their music isn’t reinventing the wheel, but it doesn’t have to. British girl bands nowadays are far and few between and the familiarity of these girls’ personalities and their undeniable vocal talent makes them prime stars for our modern era in which a celebrity, whilst being beautiful and talented, should also seem like your friend. They laugh without restraint, make cheesy jokes and sip water from matching pink Stanley cups in between answering questions about their stardom. They’re cool but relatable.
Q&A:
I was excited for the Q&A portion considering I love getting to know what people are like; it’s always interesting to hear answers from the mouths of the stars whether they’re rehearsed or not. A day before we’d gotten an email to a google doc asking for our names and a submission of as many questions as we’d like.
The lighting got a little brighter and the crowd audibly groaned when the final notes of the closing song ‘Caught up’ was played. They began the Q&A by stating the name of the person that asked the question and cheering when they spotted a waving hand in the crowd. Jorja seems to be most confident in public speaking, reading the questions off her phone and complimenting people’s names and outfits before answering. Their advice to their past self is a classic: to not be shy. Listening to them talk really hammers home that they’re just normal 21-year-olds, chill and sweet, cracking jokes filled with slang and meme references. Stella – seemingly shier and soft spoken – sips water and offers up a niche SoundCloud deep cut as her favourite Ariana Grande song. Renee announces that the next question comes from Mara who asks, ‘Why did we call the tour Access All Areas?’ As anyone does after hearing their name, I scream and so do the girls I’m stood with. It’s a kinship built over the last hour, forged in shots of tequila rose and dancing to songs together, so they’re just as happy as I am. Jorja makes a joke that the eponymous song on the album is about sex but explains that in terms of the album it was about ‘letting the audience into their lives’. This new album covers all areas of girlhood, friendship and romance. I nod along as the girls talk directly to me. This wasn’t the only question I’d submitted but the fact they’d forgone answering ‘What is the most underwhelming part about burgeoning stardom?’ or ‘Do you think that western girl bands will ever be able to compete with the powerhouses of K-pop groups?’ or even ‘What’s your favourite snack?’ wasn’t that important.
Album info:
Their debut studio album ‘Access All Areas’ was released on 15th of November and despite not magically becoming a FLO stan after the show I really do appreciate their artistry. Their music is fun and catchy, and I believe that they’ll go far. As Issa Rae says, ‘I’m rooting for everybody black’.
If you want to take a listen, a few popular songs are: ‘Walk like this’ and ‘Flygirl’ and ‘On and On’.
Written by: Mara Spence