Despite the small crowd, both the support act and Ballard himself received a warm reception from Northern Irish country fans!<\/p>\n
Opening for Ballard, Bristol-based country-rock duo Foreign Affairs<\/strong> did well to liven up the small crowd. Playing a mix of upbeat crowd-pleasers and slow ballads, the two brothers created a great atmosphere. Highlights included their bluegrass-infused \u2018Sell my Soul\u2019<\/em> as well as \u2018Dead to You\u2019<\/em>, with a fusion of\u00a0Mumford & Sons<\/strong> and the Lumineers<\/strong>-inspired harmonies. Lead singer Lawrence Purnell\u2019s<\/strong> vocals were something else entirely; raw and passionate, his voice was a pleasant surprise to the ears. Adam Purcell\u2019s<\/strong> talented guitar playing complimented his brother\u2019s voice perfectly.\u00a0Foreign Affair’s<\/strong> are a group to watch out for in the future!<\/p>\n Despite Mandela\u2019s small crowd, Frankie Ballard<\/strong> did not disappoint, giving an energetic and enthusiastic performance from start to finish. Despite being a guitar player down, Ballard and his band well and truly made up for it in rhythmic and memorable guitar solos throughout the night. Ballard\u2019s rocky persona and cheeky attitude sat well with the crowd, as they lapped up his performance. Some dedicated fans even bought him pints of Guinness! As a thank you, Ballard warmly came off the stage to greet the Belfast fans, shaking hands, giving hugs and happily taking selfies with them all, young and old.<\/p>\n Highlight\u2019s of the Michigan man\u2019s performance included \u2018Young and Crazy\u2019, \u2018It all started with a Beer\u2019<\/em>, as well as classics such as \u2018Folsom Prison Blues\u2019<\/em>, and a rocking medley of Elvis hits Ballard-style. A key crowd-pleaser was \u2018Sunshine and Whiskey\u2019<\/em>, which he gladly ended by enjoying a sample of Bushmills!<\/p>\n However, the best moment of the night was his closing number \u2018You could\u2019ve loved me\u2019<\/em>. Unusual for country acts, Ballard ended his set with this raw, country-enthused acoustic number. Ballard captured the audience with this passionate performance, and really made his imprint upon the whole crowd.<\/p>\n Ballard’s show was a memorable gig – Opening to a small crowd did not phase the rising star! We take a look back at Frankie Ballard’s night at Mandela Hall!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7,9,11,10],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Frankie-ballard-chris-armstrong-photography.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1564,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861\/revisions\/1564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"FB-SW_BLEEDsanstxt\"](\"http:\/\/cmni.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/FB-SW_BLEEDsanstxt-300x300.jpg\")
Let\u2019s hope that he will make a return to Belfast and be met with a bigger crowd next time!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"