Ellie Goulding delights in the garden of Eden

Eden Sessions 2014

Saturday 21st June to Tuesday 15th July 2014
Eden Project, Bodelva, St Austell, Cornwall, PL24 2SG, England MAP
£35-£40 per session + £5 booking fee

Daily capacity: 6,000

The Eden Project is a very popular visitor attraction in Cornwall, its trademark biome domes host some of the worlds most exotic plants in their Mediterranean and Tropical environments.

It's hard to believe it's a charity a self sustainable, even the loo water is recycled rain water, they recycle everything and are so pro Cornwall, which is amazing, every ingredient is locally sourced, even the lemonade.

I'd never been to the Eden Project before today, boy have I missed out, it is one of the most amazing places I've ever been, it is a definite must if you visit Cornwall.
Every year since 2002 they have hosted The Eden Sessions, this is a series of musical performances with the Eden Project as the backdrop. Idyllic!

The Eden Project has hosted such famous artists and bands as Amy Winehouse, James Morrison, Muse, Lily Allen, The Flaming Lips and Blink 182 in the previous year's Eden Sessions. But this year is they had, Dizzee Rascal, Skrillex, Elbow and The Pixies.

The stage is slap bang in the middle of the bidomes, which when it got dark, looked amazing as they lit up. Food throughout the day was all Cornwall based ingredients and all reasonably priced too, burger and chips was £8.50-£9.50, You could have Tacos, Chilli, or if you booked, go to one of the fabulous eateries inside the bidodomes. (Which we did and the Food and service was exceptional).

Merchandise was reasonably priced, an Eden Sessions T-shirt would've set you back £15, whilst an Ellie Goulding T-shirt was £20.

Tonight we are here to see one of the hardest working women in pop and one of the hottest currently in the UK , angelic songbird Ellie Goulding.

Ellie Goulding has had a meteoric rise to fame since bursting on to the UK music scene back in 2009 with her first few tracks, winning the critics choice award at the Brit Awards in 2010 set her on the road to stardom and with the release of her first album 'Lights' in 2010 which catapulted her into the limelight and into the British Public's hearts.

This little cherub with the angelic voice and the hottest outfits in music, which leave nothing to the imagination by the way, is a bit like dog poo, her gig calendar is a bit chaotic to say the least, she has been everywhere this year, travelling out of suitcases, where hasn't she been? She's visited The States, done a UK tour, she's been to Europe and will be visiting Oz and the Orient later in the year, She's even had time to pop to Ibiza to do a few sessions!!

Ellie Goulding: Eden Sessions 2014

Halcyon Days, her second album was released in 2012, not once but twice, with an extended version which boasts too many tracks too mention, even I bought it twice!
Her back catalogue, even with two albums is enormous, boasting tracks such as 'Lights', 'Starry Eyed', 'The Writer', 'Your Song', 'I Need Your Love', 'Burn', 'Anything can Happen', and this is just the start.

Goulding is not just a pretty face, a performer, writer and producer and still only 27. Her accolades, well they speak for themselves, selling 4 million albums and 15 million singles worldwide by the end of 2013 and collaborations galore with Calvin Harris, Skrillex, Tinie Tempah and Lissie, not bad for someone who only bust on to the scene in 2009.

Hopefully tonight we'll see the Goulding I saw earlier this year at the Liverpool Echo Arena, now that show was immense and she never stopped for one minute, constantly jigging about like a jelly bean on acid, playing guitar or bashing the drums. And it was so cheap too £25 a ticket, what a bargain!

Tonight sees the songstress from Hertfordshire play in the most idyllic setting, what could be even more surreal? Down South with your wife seeing one of your favourite artists, in one of the most beautiful places?!! This gig sold out pretty quickly as you can imagine, it's the whole concept I guess as I've already mentioned, It's more like a family picnic but with added music, (only picnic blankets allowed, no chairs). I've been to these kind of events before and they're amazing, real family gathering's, if you want to stand up the front and give it some welly, well, that's your choice, but if you fancy a pew on your blanket up the back to grab a sarnie and enjoy the view and the sounds, be tantalised and fulfilled at the same time.

Kwabs: Eden Sessions 2014

Support was from Kwabs tonight, A South London boy who studied at the Royal Academy of Music. He has been likened to 'Seal', with a powerful baritone voice, his music has been described as 'Synth&b', I guess I'll find out what that's all about tonight?

Featuring in the BBC2 series in 2011 'Goldies Band – By Royal Appointment', he was one of those problem teenagers, you know the story. Tipped by MTV this year as one of the acts to watch out for and hotly tipped by Jessie Ware, Emeli Sande and Laura Mvula, such amazing artists to get approval from.

Only releasing his first track 'Spirit Fade ' in 2013, Kwabs has developed a steady fan base, 10,000 streams on Soundcloud in its first 24 hours is nothing to be frowned at.
What can this boy do? Let's see for ourselves??

'Pray for Love', 'Wrong or Right', 'Into You', 'Something Right' and 'Brother' featured in tonight's 30 minute set. I thought he was astounding and certainly warmed the audience up for Ms Goulding. His soulful voice and crazy dancing did the trick. When's the album out I need a copy??

Goulding came on stage at 21.00 hours dressed in what looked like a gym outfit, the tightest outfit I've ever seen, looking smouldering hot.

With full backing from her amazing band we were treated to a 90 minute stonking set, delicious delights 'Figure 8', 'Ritual', 'Goodness Gracious', kicked off the set, I'm sorry but I couldn't stop jigging about whilst snapping.

Tonight was a similar set to what Goulding played at Wireless, Birmingham at the weekend, but there were a few absolute gems as additions to the set, an acoustic version of 'Beating Heart', from the Divergent sound track, which made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, just Goulding and her guitarist, it was immense and it showed how talented she is as a vocalist. Song of the night, and what made the audience wake up, (before this is seemed a bit subdued, hardly anyone was dancing or singing where we were, BORING!!), was Goulding's rendition of Elton John's 'Your Song', again an acoustic version and so eerie, especially hearing the audience sing the words back to Goulding. It was getting dark at this point and the Biodomes were lighting up in Orange and Green, it made an exceptional back drop, there was a sea of phones at this point which was amazing to see.

Tonight was surreal, an amazing day and evening, my feet are sore so I know I've had a good day, the venue was amazing, staff are very helpful and couldn't do enough, the Eden Project is so good, the food was outstanding and the gig, well that just topped the day off really.

I realised tonight that the Eden Sessions is a must see, if ever there is an artist you want to see go and see them there. The whole day/evening is seriously out of this world, so much to see and do, and with your ticket price you get free entry to the Eden Project, you can't go wrong.

I need to go back next year it was that good!

review by: Michelle and Trish Owen-Williams

photos by: Michelle and Trish Owen-Williams