20 year old indie sensation Rex Orange County sells out headline show at Albert Hall in Manchester

Alexander O’Connor, famously known as Rex Orange County, is a talented rising star singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist at the young age of 20. 

In 2016, things started to blow up for O’Connor. He released his debut album ‘Bcos U Will Never B Free’ on SoundCloud, attracting the attention of Odd Future pioneer Tyler, the Creator. If the stamp of approval wasn’t enough, Tyler flew O’Connor out to LA to collaborate on some songs, and by 2017, he ended up featuring on two tracks from Tyler, the Creator’s Grammy-nominated ‘Flower Boy’. What’s more, he won second place in the prestigious annual  BBC Sound Of 2018 poll behind Norwegian songwriter Sigrid.

The release of his first two albums ‘Bcos U Will Never B Free’ and ‘Apricot Princess’ have set the bar high in the indie scene and with the success of his previous gig in February, tickets for Rex’s Albert Hall show sold out pretty fast for someone that only rose to fame in the last couple years. 

With the release of his two albums in 2017, ‘Bcos U Will Never B Free’ and ‘Apricot Princess’, the gig was set to be a stunningly unique performance as he smoothly executed charming renditions of his latest tracks.

With no support act to entertain the audience, the fairly intoxicated fans grew impatient as they started chanting his name, but the Albert Hall soon exploded into cheers and applause as the indie sensation walked on stage, placing himself at his keyboard with a humble grin on his face.

Rex’s set opened with the title track of his sophomore album ‘Apricot Princess‘ much to the crowd’s pleasure, which instantly perked the adoring fans up as they screamed in excitement and sang along, word for word.   

The atmosphere was effortlessly cool and laid back, delivered simply but beautifully by a boy on stage with his instruments. Blessing our ears with his unique blend of soothing vocals and ingenious catchy melodies, Rex combined the art of light rapping and spoken word.

The set drew a variety of emotions from the crowd, from the highs of ‘Never Enough’ and ‘Best Friends’ sending waves of energy into the crowd leading to moshing, to lows with more toned down, gentler intimate songs such as ‘Corduroy Dreams’ and ‘A Song About Being Sad’.

As the set came to an end, the booming chants of “encore encore!” filled the hall, as he returned to the stage with ‘Loving Is Easy’, sending the crowd into a manic frenzy of excitement. 

The only disappointing factor was that the set didn’t last long enough. We were left craving more at the end – it was kept short and sweet, suiting Rex’s simplistic persona. An absolutely faultless performance, Rex has a long and fruitful future ahead of him.