Anthony PhamHarry Styles opened the first night of his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium by reminiscing about his audition for The X Factor, 16 years ago.
“Just outside of this building, just next door in Wembley Arena, my sister brought me to London for the very first time,” said the star, who was born in Redditch and raised in Cheshire.
“It was… in that building that I was put in a band. We were called One Direction,” he recalled, prompting screams from a sold-out crowd of 80,000 fans.
“My sister is here tonight,” he added. “I want to thank her. I love you and I appreciate you.”
“I wouldn’t be here today if she hadn’t done that,” he said. “I thank you so, so much.”
Getty ImagesBack in 2010, Styles’ audition consisted of two songs: Train’s Hey Soul Sister and Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely – earning him a space in the global phenomenon One Direction.
Prior to that, the first song he ever recorded was Elvis Presley’s The Girl of My Best Friend. Appropriately, then, his walk-on music at Wembley was also an Elvis track – in this case, a cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Styles has a lot in common with the King of Rock and Roll: from his chiselled good looks to the particular way he wiggles his hips.
At Wembley, those qualities – combined with armour-plated pop smashes like As It Was and Watermelon Sugar – had the audience spellbound.
They arrived in sequins and feather boas; or sometimes in waistcoats and ties. They held paper hearts aloft during Fine Line, and painted red lips on their necks, in reference to the star’s latest album: Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.
Hand-painted signs declared “Welcome home” and “Can I be your intern this summer?”
But it was a more left-field statement that caught Styles’ attention.
“We have some hard-hitting journalism down here,” he observed, highlighting a sign from Ella, who had come from Sunderland.
“Ella’s sign says, ‘What’s your favourite type of egg?’
“Um… I like a fried egg. Followed closely with a scramble.”
So now we know.
Getty ImagesHowever random that seems, such moments of connection are the backbone of Styles’ show.
There’s a focus on community and the euphoria of – in his own words – “dancing together, sweating together and singing together”.
On stage, there is a camaraderie between the musicians, who interact playfully with their frontman, twirling him around the stage, or parting ways to let him noodle around on a vintage synthesiser.
But there is no forgetting the star of the show.
Styles can elicit screams just by adjusting the collar of his shirt and his stage for this tour is designed to let as many people get close and personal as possible.
Three interconnected catwalks stretch into the audience, carving the space into small compartments.
It makes the standing areas feel intimate – more like a club show than a stadium concert – with Styles zipping around the borders, blowing kisses and posing for cameras throughout the night.
Notably, the set-up has been tweaked since the tour launched in Amsterdam last month, removing some of the 10 foot-high “bridges” that obscured some fans’ views.
Anthony PhamThe set drew on all four of Styles’ solo albums, showcasing everything from the blissed-out pop of Adore You, to the windswept balladry of Sign of the Times.
But there was a question mark hovering over his new material, which has not been met with the sort of universal acclaim the 33-year-old has come to expect.
Kiss All The Time… was promoted as a dance record, inspired by Berlin’s club scene and transcendental moments watching bands like LCD Soundsystem.
Instead, it delivered a watered-down facsimile of those sounds, that critics called “unremarkable“, “obtuse” and “lacking in depth“.
On stage, however, the songs burst into life.
That was all down to Styles’ supple and powerful band. Swelling to 18 musicians at some points, they anchored the songs with heavy bass and pounding rhythms. The grooves finally grooved.
Opening track Are You Listening Yet rumbled along on an irresistible soca rhythm, while a sample of Underworld’s Born Slippy gave Taste Back a much-needed turbo boost.
Elsewhere, the recent single American Girls gained a long, trippy intro, with Styles messing around on an old analogue keyboard, tweaking low pass filters and playing squiggly synth noises.
It was as experimental as it was awesome – but large sections of the crowd did not really know what to make of it.
They were more enthused by Golden, leaping up and down until Wembley’s foundations shook. Later, the ebullient Treat People With Kindness saw a giant conga line snaking around the stadium.
Styles matched their enthusiasm – despite a nagging cough that sometimes left his voice with a new (and not unwelcome) raspiness.
His recent marathon training has paid dividends, allowing him to sprint circuits around the stage without losing his breath.
And while he was resolutely anti-choreography during his boyband days, he has clearly had some coaching in how to move.
There is nothing so gauche as a routine, mind you, but he dances with the oblivious cool of a best man at a wedding where everyone knows the bride prefers him to her new husband.
Friday night’s concert was the first of 12 at Wembley Stadium – breaking a record previously held by Coldplay (who played a run of 10 shows last summer) and Taylor Swift (who played eight in 2024).
It is a pattern he will adopt in all seven of the cities the Together Together tour hits this year: Amsterdam, London, São Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne and Sydney.
Styles says anchoring the tour in this way allows him to put on more elaborate shows, while protecting his and his band’s health.
“It’s not like I’m saying I’ll never travel again, but I want to see what it looks like if you do it a different way,” he told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe.
“People in my band have families now and kids [and] it’s really important to me that they’re on the road. I don’t want to make it near impossible for them to be able to come do that with me.”
That thoughtfulness was on full display in London. As Styles thanked his stage crew at the end of the show, their faces flashed up on the video screens – apparently taking some by surprise.
But the singer made sure fans knew they were the most important element of the whole endeavour.
“Thank you for choosing to spend your evening with us,” he said halfway through the show.
“Seeing what you all created together – this energy, this community – I’ve never felt more hopeful about the future.”
It is a big sentiment – and probably not one worth scrutinising given current world events.
But for two brief hours, we abandoned our worries, made new friends, and felt a little joy. And that is something.
Rosie CarneHarry Styles’ Wembley setlist
- Are You Listening Yet?
- Golden
- Adore You
- Watermelon Sugar
- Music for a Sushi Restaurant
- Taste Back / Born Slippy
- Coming Up Roses
- Fine Line
- String interlude: Night Changes / Falling / History
- Italian Girls
- American Girls
- Keep Driving
- Ready, Steady, Go!
- Dance No More (including elements of Gorillaz’ Clint Eastwood)
- Treat People With Kindness (including elements of Talking Heads’ This Must Be the Place and Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Al)
- Pop
- Season 2 Weight Loss
- Carla’s Song (including elements of Satellite)
- Aperture
Encore:
- Little Freak
- Sign of the Times
- As It Was
