Florence and The Machine - Performances

Performances

Florence and the Machine started off by playing a handful of gigs in and around London, and in August 2007, the band performed at the debut year of the 1–2–3–4 Shoreditch Festival, performing alongside Lightspeed Champion on the MySpace Main Stage which was hosted by manager Nash's DJ double act, Queens of Noize. In May 2008, they supported MGMT on tour in Europe. The BBC played a large part in Florence and the Machine's rise to prominence by promoting her as part of BBC Introducing. This led to them playing music festivals in 2008, including Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds and Bestival. Florence and the Machine were also part of the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2009 in January and February.

The group played the Concerts for Teenage Cancer Trust charity event at the Royal Albert Hall in March 2009. Florence and The Machine supported Blur for their 26 June comeback performance at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester. They played at the Lovebox Festival on 18 and 19 July. In July 2009, the group was supporting Duran Duran. They performed at the Glastonbury Festival 2009, the Reading and Leeds 2009, Electric Picnic 2009 and T in the Park 2009.

Florence and the Machine played at Australia's Splendour in the Grass music festival in July 2010. The group drew one of the biggest crowds of the three-day festival. They performed in the natural open-air amphitheatre, which had to be closed off by security due to safety concerns as an unprecedented number of festival-goers rushed to see the performance. It is estimated that 28,000 people of the 33,000 people who attended the festival crammed in to see Florence and the Machine. The amphitheatre was reopened shortly after the start, once the safety concerns were allayed. In October 2009, the band's equipment and instruments were caught in a trailer fire during their European tour, forcing the band to use rented instruments to complete their remaining shows. Welch stated, "You could hear the harp's strings ping in the fire. Strange sound. We recorded it and I want to use it in a song."

On 27 October 2009, Florence and the Machine played their first official New York City gig at the Bowery Ballroom, and performed "Kiss with a Fist" on the Late Show with David Letterman. On 5 November, the band performed "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Welch stated although she would like to tour the United States, she is fearful of becoming homesick due to the time it would take to tour the country.

After the success of Lungs topping the UK Albums Chart in January 2010, seven months after the album was released, Florence and the Machine announced an eleven-date UK and Ireland tour called The Cosmic Love Tour in May 2010. Support acts include Babe Shadow and The Drums. Florence and the Machine performed at Oxegen 2010, T in the Park 2010, the Isle of Wight Festival 2010, Roskilde Festival 2010, V Festival 2010, and the San Miguel Primavera Sound 2010. In March 2010, it was that confirmed that the band's first headlining festival would be Latitude 2010, having been booked the previous September before achieving mainstream success.

The Cosmic Love Tour kicked off at Dublin's Olympia Theatre on 2 May 2010 where the group debuted a new song called "Strangeness and Charm" and ended at London's Hammersmith Apollo on 15 May 2010. On 25 June, the group played the Glastonbury Festival 2010, where they performed "Strangeness and Charm" and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" during their ten-song set. Their performance drew one of the biggest crowds of the day and one of the biggest in the Other Stage's history.

Welch and Dizzee Rascal's performance of a mashup version of the band's single "You've Got the Love" and Dizzee's single "Dirtee Cash", titled "You Got the Dirtee Love", at the 2010 BRIT Awards on 16 February 2010 was described as "a definite highlight of the evening". This collaboration was released as a charity single the following day, peaking at number two on the UK Singles Chart. She reprised the performance when she joined Dizzee on stage during his performance at the Glastonbury Festival 2010. Florence and the Machine opened for U2 on the North American leg of their U2 360° Tour in June and July 2011.