Folk-punk royalty Frank Turner paid a visit with his bandmates, The Sleeping Souls, to his self-proclaimed "favourite venue" Rock City, to finally perform the rescheduled show in front of a sea of admiring fans. Jake Longhurst reviews.
Visiting the hallowed halls of the world famous venue Rock City is always a fun experience, but
when the headliner has the venues name tattooed on him and a piece of its old floor up in his
living room, you can expect him to show up with a lot of love and a hell of a show.
Frank Turner is well known in the UK music scene, most notably for his tour that never seems to
stop! With his latest show at Rock City being his 2,689th show, he has no signs yet of slowing
down either, and is carrying on his infectious brand of folk-punk to deliver it to the people who
want it.
Upon arrival, I’d missed the first support band Truckstop Honeymoon due to unforeseen
circumstances, but I was assured that they had been excellent, and Frank said later in the evening
that they are his "favourite band in the entire world right now"; so if that isn’t enough of an
endorsement to try them out, then I don’t know what is. However, I was in time to catch the
brilliant Pet Needs, and was enamoured instantly by their sound, being very similar to Frank
Turner and his band The Sleeping Souls but with a little less folk influence and slightly more old
school punk rock thrown in. This was a band I’d not heard any of previously, but had heard good
things about, so I was looking forward to checking them out. Sure enough, they didn’t
disappoint. Songs like Tracey Emin’s Bed and Ibiza In Winter went down an absolute storm with
the Rock City crowd, and the massive singalong in set closer Get On The Roof was a great way
to finish off, as well as to tee up Frank Turner.
As the clock struck 8:05, the lights went down for the excellent Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls to begin what would soon become an uproarious evening of fun. Coming out and launching
straight into the breakdown of the brilliant Four Simple Words was a near-perfect way to start a
set, and the show didn’t drop in energy until the very end. Next up was a cut off of his latest LP,
FTHC, called The Gathering. This which ‘biblical’, to quote the song. The first 13 songs of the set
all had the complete band involved, and included such hits as A Wave Across A Bay, Plain
Sailing Weather and 1933.
"Visiting the hallowed halls of the world famous venue Rock City is always a fun experience, but when the headliner has the venues name tattooed on him and a piece of its old floor up in his living room, you can expect him to show up with a lot of love and a hell of a show."
Frank then did a three song solo acoustic break, with the song There She Is being the first of
the break. This song was written about his wife in the day he realised he would marry her, and
was played right after A Wave Across A Bay, a song which was written about the suicide of one of
Frank’s close friends Scott Hutchison, the frontman of Frightened Rabbits. This one-two hit was
a particularly emotional moment in the set, and brought the whole crowd together in a beautiful,
soulful moment. Next up was The Ballad Of Me And My Friends, which was dedicated to the
crowd and went down a treat, which was followed by Be More Kind, cementing the atmosphere
of the show as a positive and uplifting feel.
The Sleeping Souls returned to the stage midway through the song to finish the main set with
five more songs, including four personal faves in a row of Non Serviam, Haven’t Been Doing So
Well, Polaroid Picture and Get Better. For me personally, the highlight of that run of tracks
would be Non Serviam, partly as it is one of the most pure punk songs in the setlist, and also
because I managed to find my dear friend Ali in the pit and scream half the lyrics along with him.
The band briefly left, then returned for an encore starting with a final solo track by Frank with a
rendition of Thatcher Fucked The Kids that had one of the loudest singalongs of the entire
evening.
To bring us on home, the band played four more songs together (for a whopping total of 26
songs!) that started with I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous, which led into all-time fave
Recovery, and then the final one-two blow of the brilliant Try This At Home and I Still Believe.
With a setlist as long and as chockful of hits as this, it was never going to be a quiet night, but
the show will be one to remember for so many of the attendees.
The general feeling of everyone walking out was that of joy, of unity, of community and of love,
and I don’t think there is any better way to sum up how a Frank Turner gig makes you feel.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by: Jodie Averis
Cover image courtesy of Manchester Theatres.
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