Will Varley

4th December 2025

Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

I generally try and catch Will Varley whenever he ventures north of the border, but had been unable to attend either of his Scottish gigs earlier this year, so took the opportunity to tag this one onto a trip south to see Glasgow Warriors play at Sale.

I have to say, I almost failed to recognise Will as he ambled on stage - gone was the slightly dishevelled hippy-esque hirsute Bill Bailey look, replaced by a well-trimmed beard topped by what my Mum would have called a Sensible Haircut.  He had also, by his own admission "put on some weight".  His unique voice - at times angry, at times heartbreakingly plaintive, and at times sparkling with humour was, however, clearly recognisable.

  
Will was touring solo his latest album; the slightly cumbersomely titled Machines Will Never Learn to Make Mistakes Like Me (his first in four years) - and was clearly confident enough in the quality of the songs to present us with pretty much the whole collection.

Different Man - a yarn relating Will's (mis)adventures on a recent US Tour is by far the most easily accessible tune on the album, but the collection is crammed with more introspective songs which each reward the listener upon repeated listens: Only Louise, Everything has a Heartbeat and (especially) Whatever's Left.

  
But my fave new 'un from this evening's show was Never Get Tired of Loving You, on which Will upped the tempo a bit from the studio recording, driving the thing along with some effective acoustic strumming.

"Machines Cannot...." certainly feels like a step up from his previous couple of releases, each of which threatened to drown in the weight of too many dirge-like slowburners.

  
But the man's finest album, in my opinion, still remains Postcards From Ursa Minor - and I was delighted we got five songs from that release this evening.  Seize The Night has long been used as a rousing end to Will's shows, but to have two lesser-played gems (The Endlessness and The Space Between and Send My Regards to the System) closing out the main set, had me squeaking with delight.
 

Support act Chloe Hawes.

Brudenell Social Club.

Oor Wullie.

  

Machines Will Never Learn to Make Mistakes Like Me

Set list

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Machines Will Never Learn to Make Mistakes Like Me

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Outside Over There

King For a King

I'll Be Home Before the World Ends

Different Man

Until the Grass Gets Greener

Only Louise

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Sound of the Markets Crashing

End Times

Whatever's Left

I Got this Email

Never Get Tired of Loving You

The Endlessness and The Space Between

Send my Regards to the System

Encore

Long Way Back to Now

Seize The Night

 

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With a full day to kill before my rugby match, the following morning I made my way to the still impressive ruins of Kirkstall Abbey.  

Here I enjoyed a one-hour one-to-one tour with one of the volunteer guides.  

The serenity and gravitas of the old Abbey was, however, ruined slightly by me uttering a few distinctly ungodly words, as I did that old persons' thing of falling over - in this case, into a slippery patch of mud in the Nave.

  
I am sure Abbot Alexander never had to endure such ignominy.

The River Aire flows by the Abbey - indeed is probably the reason the Abbey site was originally chosen.

The Nave - site of the Great Tumble.

At school, I was told the hole in such stone coffins was to allow beasties and worms in,
and bodily fluids oot, to facilitate prompt reuse.