Floral Image at YES Basement Manchester 22-05-25

Pray For Mojo

By the time the support band had hit the stage, the majority of the crowd for the night had already packed into the intimate space that is YES Basement. The support band for the night were the fittingly psychedelic Pray For Mojo, as the only support act of the night, these lads from Warrington made sure to pull everything out of the bag to get people excited for the headliners.

We were treated to a new song from the band called ‘Bad Chemistry’, which will be one to look out for when it is released. Vocalist Greg Dixon’s interactions with the crowd made for a fun show, including announcements such as: “This is Softie, it’s quite a soft one, hopefully nobody’s had to say that today” and jumping into the crowd and standing on the benches which bordered the room whilst continuing to play.

After a quick set up, Floral Image, the psychedelia headliners from Norwich, emerged from the door to the side of the stage to play the first song of the night, ‘Voices’. This was one of a handful of songs played from previous releases, the main feature of the night being their new album ‘Gone Down Meadowland’. With Manchester being the first night of the album tour, the band announced, “It’s a pleasure to play these songs in Manchester, the home of music” before bouncing into ‘Burning 305’, followed by the whimsical ‘The Score’.

The album was truly brought to life and given even more depth in a live setting as opposed to hearing it digitally, especially in the compact venue, as it felt like each member was playing to you directly. This, alongside the playfulness of the band, such as messing with each other’s equipment and blowing smoke at each other on the stage, made the overall experience that bit more intimate.

The band played a total of 7 songs from their new release, which meant only missing out on ‘Meadowland’, ‘Call Up The Doctor’ and ‘Boogietown’, which is forgivable with the addition of the previously mentioned ‘Voices’ alongside ‘Feel Around You’ and ‘Gallipoli’ which was played either side of the songs from the album.

The order of songs played kept the audience engaged, not knowing which song from the album would be coming next, due to being played in a different order from the release. This, with the addition of shakers, violin bow on the bass and harmonica, kept everyone entranced in what the band had to offer and what they would pull out of the bag next. Finalised by a last flip of the bass from Matt Kennedy to reveal ‘Enjoy Yourself Eternally’ displayed on the back.