Piece Hall Halifax – Live Review

Rag ‘n’ Bone Man | Elles Bailey 
The Piece Hall Halifax 
Thursday 10 July 2025 

Big man…big voice…big songs. King of the moody ballads Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, gave a sell-out crowd at the Piece Hall exactly what they wanted, but to his credit, did mix it up, including his more uptempo work with club producer Calvin Harris.

Before that, Queen of UK Americana Elles Bailey offered her version of country rock and blues. One thing you can say about Piece Hall audiences is they do give the support acts a fair crack of the whip, and Bailey went down well with a crowd who probably weren’t looking for anything too challenging. Leave The Light On was dedicated to the people behind the scenes who meant she could follow her dreams. She introduced Over The Hill as a mix of ‘John Martyn, the Band and Tina Turner, which didn’t live up to that grandiose billing. Sunshine City had a touch of Stax about it, and the personable Bailey made the most of the slot, having won herself quite a few more fans.

As the heavily tattooed Rag ‘n’ Bone Man – aka Rory Graham- wandered onstage, you might have mistaken him for a security man who’d made the wrong turn, but when he opened his mouth to unleash that deep baritone, you understood why he packs out venues. He opened with the punchy Lovers In A Past Life and his catchy collaboration with Calvin Harris even sparked a bit of dad dancing from the big man.

The mid-tempo Skin is more typical of his earnest ballads full of angsty lyrics, but before that, he took a paper plane from his son, perched on the side of the stage and sailed it into the audience, which was certainly the first time I’ve seen a performer do that. Time To Live and The Right Way were regulation Rag ‘N’ Bone Man tunes before he got a bit funky on Hideaway. The gospel tinged ballad Grace was from his platinum-selling album Human, but he said he wasn’t playing the title song then as ‘half of you would probably fuck off.’

Just when you thought you might be in for a night of lovely mid-tempo tunes Rag ‘n’ Bone Man changed it up with the guitar-led blues rock of Hard Came The Rain from his pre-Human days, and mused, “about 7 people know this song”. The pop rock of All You Ever Wanted had one bloke in a flowery shirt waving his arms manically, and the tiresome drunks behind us had a frenzied bop. The audience seemed to like this version of Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, which might be a useful marker for future records.

Introducing the title track from his latest album, What Do You Believe in?, he sardonically noted that “17 people bought it”, which is a shame as it was a great tune, as was the heartfelt Anywhere Away From Here as a backing vocalist took on the parts Pink sang on the single. He’d relaxed by now, telling the audience, “I don’t have many happy songs” before the atypically optimistic Be The Man.

All roads at a Rag ‘n’ Bone Man gig inevitably lead to his smash hit breakthrough 2016 hit Human, and as his huge voice rang out across the four enclosed sides of this historic venue, the phones were straight up in the air as the faithful got what they wanted. Human remains a great song, and Rag ‘n’ Bone Man filled it full of soul and humanity.

Rag ‘n’ Bone Man bade farewell with another Calvin Harris hook-up, and Giant was an apt way to end things with a big tune delivered by a giant of a man who, every time he opened his mouth, showed he had a soul to match.

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Words by Paul Clarke, you can see his author profile here.

Photos by Frank Ralph, you can find Frank at his website | Instagram| Facebook