Blossoms have surprised a group of school kids in Stockport by giving an impromptu performance at their leavers day festival.
On Monday (July 26), students at St Thomas’ Church of England Primary School in Heaton, Stockport, were treated to a gig from the ‘Your Girlfriend’ hitmakers, along with a Q&A afterwards.
It comes after Year 6 pupils had written a letter to the band – who are local to the area, with all five of the band members hailing from Stockport – a few weeks ago asking if they’d perform at the event.
According to Manchester Evening News, Blossoms called up the school themselves to accept the invitation. However, staff kept the news a secret from the students until the day of the event in order to surprise them.
“It shows the power of persuasive writing, they couldn’t refuse,” Headteacher Louise Loynes told the paper.
Brilliant day yesterday for our Year 6 leavers festival, topped by some local lads giving us an amazing intimate acoustic gig and Q&A @BlossomsBand #stockport #itsnothardisit pic.twitter.com/ZTGPoFwKyM
— St Thomas’ CE Heaton Chapel (@StThomasHeaton) July 27, 2021
Three members of the band – frontman Tom Ogden, guitarist Josh Dewhurst and drummer Joe Donavon – performed an acoustic set to all 300 students at the school’s junior campus, while the 60 Year 6 pupils were given front row seats. The band also took part in a Q&A after performing five of their tracks.
Blossoms’ performance came two days after their Main Stage performance at Tramlines festival, which they played on Saturday (July 24) alongside the likes of Royal Blood, The Lathums and Lucy Spraggan.
“It was a different sort of crowd to Tramlines,” Ms Loynes said, before explaining that the band wanted to give something back to the local community. “They rang themselves and they said that they wanted to give something back. They were more than happy to help us out. They were lovely,” she said.
@JoeDonovan92 @BlossomsBand @tomogden93 Thank you so much to Stockport’s Finest, Blossoms, for turning up and playing at my kids Year 6 leavers festival today. What a top bunch of lads you are. Massive thanks 🙏 x pic.twitter.com/hNUCA6UcIn
— Melanie Aspinall (@Mel_Aspinall) July 26, 2021
Because of COVID restrictions, St Thomas were unable to organise its usual leavers’ prom for its Year 6 pupils, but they wanted to make sure they put something special on for the students given the tough year.
Take a look at footage from the performance below:
Our claim to fame the Blossoms playing live with our leavers banner in the background 🥰🥳 thank you for our booking 🤩🤩🤩
Posted by Set the Scene on Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Meanwhile, Blossoms have revealed that they’ve completed work on their fourth album.
The band spoke to NME backstage at their COVID pilot gig at Sefton Park in May, where they discussed progress on the follow-up to 2020’s acclaimed ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’.
“Yeah, we’ve done it, so it’s recorded and we’re sorting all the other stuff out now, like the artwork and all that sort of stuff,” frontman Tom Ogden told NME. “We’ve had a bit more time to finesse that side of it, which we haven’t had in the past so I feel like it’s going to be a real special album.”
Drummer Joe Donovan joked that now it’s just about “trying not to listen to it too much so they don’t get bored of it.” When asked what direction the release has taken musically he added, “I’d say it’s like an extension of ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’ in some ways”, before questioning bandmate Charlie Salt’s claim that “it sounds like Paul Simon meets Showaddywaddy.”