Frank Turner

21st August 2021

Manchester O2 Apollo

This gig had initially been arranged as an outdoor one, as part of Frank's "The Gathering" set of shows intended to celebrate the lifting of (some of the) COVID restrictions facilitating a return to live music.  The show had initially been scheduled to take place at Urmston Sports Club, of all places.  Quite why we ended up indoors, I have no idea.

Frank's wife Jess Guise opened the event, I believe.  But whether this was a solo performance or one with her band, I have no idea, for I did a foolish thing.  I somehow, set my sat-nav to simply  "Manchester", rather than the venue itself.  So, when the nice lady assured me I had reached my destination, I jumped out, bought six pounds worth of parking, then set off on foot for the O2 Apollo which was, apparently just around the corner.

There then followed a good ten minutes of idiotic blundering around central Manchester before realisation dawned.  And by the time I finally took my seat in the O2 Apollo balcony, Guise was good and gone, and Dan Allan of Ducking Punches was doing his stuff.  

And I could immediately see why FT may have chosen him for the evening's line up.  For his music, I felt, would have sat rather well on Frank's debut solo album Sleep Is For The Week; housing as it did, a not dissimilar same blend of thought-provoking wit and anger.   

Manchester O2 Apollo

 Dan Allen

Deux Furieuses (translates as two furious women, sort of) were a real revelation.  A (as the name implies) duo consisting of just Vas Antoniadou on drums and guitarist and singer Ros Cairney.  Despite the paucity of instrumentation their sound was full-bodied and impressive.  With one foot in post-punk, and another in alt-rock the ladies effortlessly straddled the two genres.

She's Not Coming Home Tonight, musically anyway, nodded in the direction of The Immigrant Song - even if the message could not have been farther from Percy's Scandic ramblings.  For both this one, and Are We Sexy Enough, unflinchingly stared down the uncomfortable fact many women today still face the threat of violence almost daily.

Deux Furieuses struck me as a brace of artistes for whom the word compromise probably does not exist, and I loved them.

Ros Cairney

Vas Antoniadou

Deux Furieuses

    

Pet Needs, by contrast, I found I couldn't really warm to.

Championed by FT himself, who produced their last album, I ended up wondering if the band have been a touch guilty of believing their own hype.

They opened their set by doing that 1980s stadium rock thing, whereby the musicians in the band play an instrumental (or at least a lengthy intro), before the front man (in this case, vocalist Johnny Marriot) makes his triumphal entry.  

Marriot also kept dancing to the very front of the stage to leap onto one of Frank's little platform thingies to better "interact" with the crowd.  Unfortunately, with no-one up in the lighting control box operating the super trouper, more often than not Johnny ended up as an anonymous silhouette.  But then again, perhaps that was the intended look.

Whilst there was certainly an element of 70s punk rock to their sound, at times Pet Needs just came across as a quartet of slightly posh kids playing at it.  An impression reinforced when Johnny and his brother George informed us all (irony free) that their mum was in the audience.  The pair then hugged before thanking her for letting them "make such an awful racket in her conservatory"  Did Johnny Rotten or Steve Jones' mums have conservatories?  I rather doubt it.

Early days, I suppose, for the band.  And a fair number of the audience really seemed to be into then - so, hey, what do I know?

Rich the bassist - he doesn't appear to get a surname on the band's website.

Pet Needs

Frank Turner, when he took to the stage looked, as may be expected of one who lives for live shows, utterly delighted to be here.

And, post-pandemic (if indeed we are post-pandemic), I am sure his choice of set opener Get Better - with it's refrain of "We're not dead yet!" - was no coincidence.  The slightly beefed-up rendition of 1933 which followed, was as nothing to the big changes made to Little Changes, as all pretence to reggae-tinged pop was jettisoned to make way for a rendition which verged on heavy metal.

Indeed, most songs appeared to have been given an extra edge, with  FT's increased electric guitar input freeing up Ben Lloyd to slip sly additional licks in here and there.

Bassist's Tarrant Anderson's contributions were also further to the fore in the mix than I can remember.  Indeed, way too far initially.

Given this rougher approach to the business, it came as no surprise that no space could be found for any of the (arguably) slightly over-produced tunes from the No Man's Land album.

A couple of new songs were aired: The Gathering, was one I had heard performed acoustically at Newcastle last year, and it had been fleshed out more than a touch since.  I was not comfortable with the use of the word "biblical" in the first line back then.  And am still not, I have to say.  Ascribing the adjective "biblical" to anything should never be complimentary.  

Non Serviam was mischievously introduced by Frank as a ballad, but was actually three minutes of decibel-leaden thrash, which made Napalm Death sound a bit mainstream.  It may be a bit of a grower, is the best I can say about it.

But it was good to be back at an indoor gig.  And I smiled as I was walking away from the venue, for one could immediately tell who had been upstairs seated and who in the standing pit downstairs - for the latter, each and everyone of them, were leaving a salty trail of glistening sweat behind them.

?COVID Soup

Frank Turner - Manchester - August 2021

Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls - Manchester - August 2021

Set list

Get Better
1933
Little Changes
If I Ever Stray
The Road
Photosynthesis
The Gathering
Polaroid Picture
Plain Sailing Weather
Non Serviam
I Am Disappeared
Out of Breath
There She Is
Be More Kind
I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous
The Next Storm
Try This at Home
Long Live the Queen

Encore
The Ballad of Me and My Friends
Recovery
I Still Believe
Four Simple Words