credit: Blossoms YouTube
Blossoms released their ‘Back to Stockport’ documentary — directed by Charlie Watts — on Amazon Prime — heavily featuring their iconic Edgeley Park performance along with behind the scenes of recording and talking about their childhoods and how Blossoms became the band we know and love. The five piece indie band who named themselves after their local pub, ‘The Blossoms’, are responsible for consistently releasing pop synth tunes that ring in your ears again. Blossoms is formed of Tom Ogden (singer/songwriter), Charlie Salt (bass, backing vocals), Josh Dewhurst (lead guitar), Joe Donovan (drums), and Myles Kellock (keyboard, synthesiser). The documentary provides an insight as to how the band members met — each of them attending the same secondary school but at different times. As a reward for good attendance, Tom and Joe both met at a school trip to Alton Towers. Joe also previously knew Charlie.
credit: Manchester Evening News When Charlie joined Blossoms as their bassist, he was able to provide the band with a rehearsal space — his grandfather’s scaffolding yard — which later featured on the cover of their debut album, self titled, ‘Blossoms.’ The band also talk about their first gig where they played Oldham Street’s Night and Day Cafe in Manchester, charging £3 of entry and joking about how they profited £1 from the performance. We also see the £60 budget music video, directed by Tom himself for, “Cut Me and I’ll Bleed,” before the band mention supporting their idols; Kasabian, Courteeners, and The Stone Roses, and how they have performed the iconic Pyramid stage at Glastonbury. Blossoms returned home to Stockport to play to 15,000 fans at a sold out Edgeley Park on June 22nd 2019. The crowd are energetic throughout — fans sitting on shoulders, aesthetically pleasing powder flares lighting the stadium, and everyone screaming the bands lyrics back to them.
credit: Manchester Evening News Viewers will enjoy full length performances from the band (listed below) as well as snippets of songs featuring as they are played over the documentary. As the lead singer, Tom’s introduction of the band has stuck with him as he announces,“Good evening Stockport, we are Blossoms from Stockport.” 1. At Most a Kiss 2. I Can’t Stand It 3. Honey Sweet 4. Love Talk 5. Your Girlfriend 6. Blow 7. Blown Rose 8. Getaway 9. My Favourite Room 10. Unfaithful 11. There’s a Reason Why (I Never Returned Your Calls) 12. Charlemagne
credit: Gary Lambert Throughout the documentary, we see the band preparing to celebrate Tom’s girlfriends’ 30th birthday where the five piece joked about dressing as The Beatles for the occasion — however, since there are only four members of The Beatles, they settled on dressing up as the Spice Girls instead; Myles as Baby, Josh as Ginger, Joe as Sporty, Charlie as Scary, and Tom as Posh. Tom also admits to feeling nervous before performing Edgeley Park despite never normally experiencing nerves before a gig. Whilst we see fans arriving at the stadium, ‘My Favourite Room’ and ‘Texia’ feature in the documentary. Talking about their hometown, Joe describes Stockport as a, “typical northern working class town,” before we see pictures of the band as children and have an insight of their childhoods and interests (which is unsurprisingly very football and music focused). Tom started writing songs in his teenage years and he admits there was a time when he felt, “I’m actually pretty good at this,” but the singer-songwriter hadn’t anticipated the level of success Blossoms would achieve. Whilst at school, Tom would write songs about girls in his year group as well as underage drinking. However, at the age of 19, Tom embarked on his first serious relationship and was able to pull on his experiences to portray love and heartbreak in his music.
credit: Press During the behind the scenes recording of ‘Your Girlfriend’, we learn that the band all contribute to the sounds the band are known for, each personally influencing songs — with Charlie’s love of Motown bass mixed with “classic pop song writing.” Whilst we see Blossoms exploring and travelling the world when they are on tour, hits from their latest album, ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’, released earlier this year, feature in the background — ‘My Vacant Days’, ‘If You Think This Is Real Life’ and ‘My Swimming Brain.’ A snippet of ‘The Keeper’ is played alongside their music video, and the band go on to mention the praise that the BBC have consistently given the band as we see them perform the BBC Introducing Stage where up and coming musicians are provided with time to display their talent. We also witness the band meeting fans and taking photographs with them which is then developed into a collage.
The documentary ends with their final song performed at Edgeley Park, ‘Charlemagne.’ The track was a commercial success with a whole lot of love from BBC Radio 1. ‘Charlemagne’ also topped the Christmas vinyl chart — so it was no surprise that the crowd gave it their all during the popular hit. From their debut self titled album, ‘Blossoms’, the band have progressed throughout their career with another two albums — ‘Cool Like You’ and ‘Foolish Loving Spaces.’ I speak on behalf of all Blossoms fans when I say that I absolutely cannot wait until we can enjoy live music again from Stockport’s best band!
Written by Carina Saward
Twitter: @blossomsstyles
Instagram: @carinaxo___
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