Izzy Reeve
I’m a London-based music photographer and occasional writer and I love documenting gigs and people enjoying them. Having just moved back to London from Scotland, where I first started shooting concerts, I’m looking forward to exploring what the scene down south has to offer with CLUNK! From new acts to festivals, I love what clunk champions and I can’t wait to get started.
Folk duo Flyte return for their annual Christmas show, this time at London’s Kings Place for a special intimate performance
If I had one solid festive plan this year, it was Flyte’s very special Christmas show. This year, the band graced Kings Place, a regal venue cladded in the oak wood of a single tree with gorgeous acoustics. For two sold out shows in one day, the audience looked on from the wraparound balcony and sat, awed, as Will Taylor and Nick Hill performed alongside Her Ensemble’s lead Ellie Consta, violinist Coco Inman and cellist Eliza Millett. With a special guest appearance from Maddie Ashman, the band delivered an evening of warmth and whimsy, a perfect antidote for the winter months.
Keeping to their London-based tradition, following on from last year at Union Chapel, Flyte hosted a night of magical arrangements including a stunning cover of ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’. Fresh off the back of their European tour to celebrate the release of 2025’s album ‘Between You and Me’, the band arrived back from their Paris stop hours earlier, just in time for the matinee show. A few members of the crowd stayed all day and were rewarded with a change in setlist between shows, despite the tight turnaround and a trio of strings to arrange.
Introducing themselves humbly as “just two guys in standard tuning” for first album rouser ‘Cathy Come Home’ Flyte delivered harmonies as tight as you’ll ever hear. The warm hum of the duo’s voices, honed over ten years of playing alongside one another, weaved seamlessly together as the song descended into an extended, transcendent outro.
Going stringless for a few tracks, Nick’s voice truly shone taking on the duet in ‘Alabaster’, as did Maddie Ashman’s parts on ‘Better Than Blue’ and fourth album highlight ‘Hello Sunshine’. ‘Faithless’ sounded almost heavenly, lifted by the Her Ensemble’s swell of strings echoing through the hall. The Her Ensemble trio enhanced the emotion that haunts the lyrics of ‘Perfect Dark’, ‘Hurt People’ and ‘Tough Love’ and even transformed the sweet sentiment of ‘Even on Bad Days’ into a heart-wrenching rendition.
Breaking their dutiful, wonderstruck silence, the audience sang along to the end of the choruses in ‘Bedtime Reminder’ after kind instruction from Will. As with all Flyte concerts, the crowd were more than happy to join the duo in singing along after the go-ahead, and undoubtedly knew every word. The cherry on top of the cake was, of course, the close of the evening with ‘Speech Bubble’, a beautiful ode to love.
There’s nothing like a Flyte concert to lift the festive spirits, and with the promise of more music and more shows, I’m already looking forward to next year.
Photography by Izzy Reeve